Stomach this!
If our 40 MLAs somehow contrive to think that development means building elegant holiday homes for Mumbai's and Delhi's prosperous tax evaders in Goa and they have been saying that ad nauseam and to hell with the potable water needs of the aam aadmi or their trepidation at being segregated in their own villages; one way or another I take the liberty to think that our CMs and ministers use food as a tool or enticement to keep other MLAs not fortunate to have those sanctioning powers, happy.
A minister after all is like a demigod. He has all the spending powers and the excuses to holiday like Churchill Alemao did in London trying to fit into the shoes of his cigar chomping namesake (mercifully, only) Sir Winston Churchill though not quite slipping into them while Goa's taps ran dry or, Digambar Kamat holidaying in Kashmir and being awed by it while the aam aadmi was being robbed wholesale by thieves working with impunity at night. Or, Vishwajit Rane holidaying in France.
Accept it as another extension of the useage of the much maligned word development. How else can you explain Digambar Kamat, Pratapsing Rane and Manohar Parrikar splurging Rs15,82,251 on food for their ilk. Food for thought indeed! And by the way even in his short stint as power minister and amid all the daily power stoppages and fluctuations Alexio Sequeira could find the spark in himself to spend Rs1,03,590 on a dinner for the KIP Group at the Radisson. On January 16, 2008 he also threw a dinner for Sherali Kharyreulla, the Tajikistan, defence minister, Tajikistan and others at the Sun & Sand that cost the taxpayer Rs48,223.
And as parties go, there is little difference. The BJP like to describe themselves as a party with a difference. But the only difference is in the watering holes they patronize as can be seen in Manohar Parrikar's dining-out experience. When it comes down to it, development may be the name of the game but the route to it is through the stomach, even for the BJP. Who cares if taps run dry or the power goes out, the aam aadmi can wait while the powers that be (and should not be!) partake of the repast.
Manohar Parrikar
23.05.04 –dinner for A.Venkateshwarm, Arvind Ray at Mandovi –Rs11,659+Rs3,200 on gifts.
26.05.04 –dinner for Canadian delegation at Cidade de Goa –Rs17,630.
29.06.04 –official lunch at Ruchira Bar, Mapusa –Rs4,500.
01.07.04 -20.12.04 –daily official lunches at Ruchira Bar –Rs1,70,050.
06.07.04 –lunch for ministers, MLA's at Samarath Caterers –Rs2,400.
07.07.04 –dinner for Prof Satish Udapur, Prof Lalitha Udapur, Michigan State University at Goa Marriott –Rs16,715.
30.07.04 –dinner for ex-PM at Mandovi –Rs33,990.
27.08.04 –dinner for Association of Indian Management Schools at Cidade de Goa –Rs72,815.
22.09.04 –dinner for invitees at Mandovi –Rs9,504.
08.10.04 –dinner for Canada-India Institute Industrial Project delegates at Mandovi –Rs1,69,325.
08.11.04 -dinner for XXIX Jr National Badminton Championship –Rs44,500.
08.12.04 -lunch for select journalists covering IFFI at Nova Goa –Rs50,720.
08.12.04 –lunch for select journalist covering IFFI at Nova Goa –Rs17,080.
12.01.05 –dinner for Indian Forest Services officers at Cidade de Goa –Rs48,328.
10.01.05 -14.01.05 –official lunch at Ruchira Bar –Rs20,000
23.06.05 -lunch for select journalists at Ruchira Bar –Rs8,100.
23.08.05 –dinner at Nova Goa –Rs12,500.
08.10.05 -dinner for select journalists at Nova Goa –Rs7,280.
12.12.05 –dinner for 30 at Mandovi –Rs14,288.
05.02.06 –lunch for 15 at Nova Goa –Rs4,593.
August, 2005, February-March 2006 -Lunch for MLAs during Assembly session at Ruchira Bar –Rs1,08,900.
26.03.06 -dinner for 60 at Mandovi –Rs27,563.
05.05.06 –dinner for 60 at Mandovi –Rs23,625.
21.07.06 -dinner for 11 at Nova Goa –Rs9,930.
02.08.06 –dinner for 70 at Mandovi –Rs31,759.
04.08.06 –dinner for 16 at Mandovi –Rs10,631.
14.10.06 –lunch for MLAs -Rs6,500.
20.12.06 -lunch for MLAs, invitees at Nova Goa –Rs15,645.
10.07.06-31.07.06 –lunch for MLAs during Assembly session at Ruchira Bar –Rs1,07,104.
20.01.07 -dinner for MLAs at Mandovi –Rs7,875.
22-25.01.07 –lunch for MLAs during Assembly session at Ruchira Bar -Rs36,224.
08.03.07 –lunch for ruling ministers, MLAs at O 'Coqueiro –Rs29,000.
03.03.07 –dinner for MLAs, invitees at Mandovi –Rs12,206.
05-09.03.07 –lunch for MLAs during Assembly session at Ruchira –Rs39,376.
Total spent on entertainment between May 2004 and March 2007 was Rs12,05,515 of which Rs5,59,780 was spent on entertaining MLAs and ministers.
The government's food bill so far:
Digambar Kamat Rs36,47,744
Pratapsing Rane Rs39,72,941
Manohar Parrikar Rs12,05,515
Total Rs88,262,00
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About Me
- lion roars
- Beginning my career with the Goa Today in the late eighties, I wrote for the Marine Times, Sunday Free Press Journal, The Telegraph and Amrita Bazar Patrika before becoming Chief Reporter of the Gomantak Times, that played the biggest role then in getting Speaker Dayaynand Narvekar to resign over a molestation charge. My big break was Special Correspondent for Mid-day in Goa before I moved on to Bangalore to join the Indian Express and later the Pioneer. My next stop was Madras with the Economic Times and later Hyderabad with the same paper. My Hyderabad spell included launching a new daily called AP Times, than joining the Newstime before writing for the Dubai based Gulf News for several years. Hyderabad was where, after a spell writing a column called Lion Roars for the Deccan Chronicle, I wanted out of the rat race and decided to go solo sooner than later because of my genetic makeup and what my newest column Eye Spy that appears in the Gomantak Times Monday's and reproduced here is all about.
1 comment:
With that much cash being spent on food, we could build sewage plant for Tiswadi.
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