Living to eat - 6

Party time

Wilfred D'Souza
31.08.05 lunch for ruling MLAs Delhi Darbar Rs11,813.
19.09.05 lunch for select journalists O' Coqueiro Rs30,990.
07.10.05 dinner for an ambassador (unnamed) Cidade de Goa Rs98,332.
09.12.05 dinner for Chinese delegates Cidade de Goa Rs70,726.
14.02.06 dinner for ruling MLAs O' Coqueiro Rs20,910.
27.04.06 dinner for 20 O 'Coqueiro Rs13,195.
17.07.06 lunch for CM, ministers, MLAs O 'Coqueiro Rs14,970
24.07.06 lunch for ruling ministers, MLAs O 'Coqueiro Rs26,396.
01.11.06 dinner for MD of Soiby Satellite Pvt. Ltd O 'Coqueiro Rs3,310.
24.01.07 lunch for MLAs O 'Coqueiro Rs26,380 (On the 23rd and 24th Rane and Luizinho Faleiro spent Rs7,200 and Rs26,704 entertaining MLAs.)
02.03.07 dinner for 15 O 'Coqueiro Rs12,920.
07.03.07 lunch for ruling ministers, MLAs O 'Coqueiro –Rs31,622.
25.03.07 dinner for seven O 'Coqueiro Rs6,768.
Cost of feeding MLAs you unfairly voted to power Rs1,32,091. Power being the sine qua non here. Unfairly? For the opposition MLAs that is, because your ministers in power believe in feeding only the ruling MLAs (read: as in their own kind.)

Dayanand Narvekar
12.02.05 lunch for VIPs Hotel Majestic Rs10,500.
30.07.05 lunch for sarpanches, VIPs Green Park Rs10,500.
31.07.05 dinner for select journalists Mouli Caterers Rs9,000.
17.08.05 dinner for Dr KK Unni, Dr Frank Bertoni Goa Mariott Rs31,087.
27.08.05 dinner for doctors Green Park Rs10,500.
18.09.05 dinner for VIPs & visiting doctors O' Coqueiro Rs10,500.
11.11.05 dinner for select journalists O' Coqueiro Rs27,000.
17.12.05 dinner for Justice KG Balkrishna, other HC judges O'Coqueiro Rs25,500.
22.03.06 lunch for MLAs O 'Coqueiro Rs18,645.
20.01.06 dinner for VIPs Goa Mariott Rs15,435.
18.01.06 dinner for MCI inspector, others Goa Mariott Rs31,252.
22.02.06 dinner for sarpanchas Green Park Rs10,500.
10.02.06 dinner for MLA, sarpanchas, panchas ZP members, others Green Park Rs35,000.
12.07.06 lunch for ruling ministers, MLAs O 'Coqueiro Rs16,360.
28.07.06 lunch for 35 O 'Coqueiro Rs23,796.
22.09.06 dinner for select journalists O 'Coqueiro Rs10,500.
13.12.06 dinner for visiting dignitaries O 'Coqueiro Rs10,500.
11.01.07 dinner for Parliamentary Standing Committee Noah's Ark Rs1,21.052.
17.02.07 dinner for participants at Goa IT Goa Mariott Rs2,03,660.
28.03.07 dinner for sarpanchas, panchas Green Park Rs10,500.
14.04.07 dinner for sarpanchas, panchas O 'Coqueiro Rs22,905.
04.10.07 dinner for RBI officer Mumbai International Centre bill awaited.
15.12.07 dinner for sarpanchas, panchas Sirsat Caterer Rs16,200.

July 2006

Like 9/11, July will be a month to remember for the devastating effect on your tax rupees. Only there were no terrorists involved, it was your friendly neighbourhood montri who was involved. The dotor (whose flights to Delhi etc and abroad I also researched cost Rs22,89,428 from Feb 2005-Aug 2007) and Narvekar (flight cost: Feb 2000-Mar 2007 Rs14,94,884) spent a total of Rs57,726 entertaining the ruling MLAs on July 12, 17 and 24. On July 25 Digambar Kamat (flight cost: Jan 2000-Jan 2005 Rs11,40,395) threw a Rs28,814 lunch for his ministers and MLAs at O 'Coqueiro. On July 31 Pratapsing Rane (flight cost:Feb 2005-Apr 2006 Rs14,57,354) hoisted a Rs16,200 lunch for ministers and MLAs at his fav Sher-e-Punjab. Apparently they were so eager to rush back to work, so they couldn't find a Goan food restaurant. These are expenses of ministers I have covered so far. There's more on July and it's enough to constipate you. But for now remember that Rs1,02,740 was spent gorging in July of that year. Also, don't you wish some of these restaurants especially the many at the Cidade Goa, or speciality restaurants like O' Coqueiro and Sher-e-Punjab were government owned, just so that some of the profit pennies filter back to you? In the business pages they call it dividends. Not happening!

Mea Culpa

My apologies, I should have pointed this out last week, but all this gorging on or off my tax money slowed down the brain functions to the extent I forgot to mention this bit of appetizing fact. Dadoo's (see table below) dinosaur dinning habits made him spend Rs1,20,850 on a banquet bash for Kiran Dhingra, an upright chief secretary, perhaps the only one Goa ever had and known for her austerity (read as: refused to sanction corruption) and was therefore transferred out by Pratapsing Rane. I find that curious because Dhingra, who definitely was not a foodie, spent a bit more than what was spent on that one dinner during her entire Goa stint as you can see from the facts below. My point if you haven't cottoned on yet, is the entire janta must be attending all these al fresco freebies. Only Narvekar, which is why Kamat made him finance minister, cared to entertain your lowly sarpanch and panch spending Rs1,05,605.

By the way, a panch who swears by socialism and to do social work (till you vote for him/her that is) gets a monthly stipend of Rs1,000 while a sarpanch gets paid Rs2,000 which you will understand is why they sanctioned all those monstrosities built by Delhities and Mumbaites in your village. In fact, Narvekar got really fiscal putting, as you can see from his spend sheet, a cap of Rs10,500 on many of his eat outs. But his love for doctors, dunno about that despite all the rumours, if you know what I mean.

The government's food bill (and growing) so far:
Digambar Kamat Rs 36,47,744
Pratapsing Rane Rs 39,72,941
Manohar Parrikar Rs 12,05,515
Vishwajit Rane Rs 84,788
Alexio Sequeira Rs 1,03,590
J P Singh, IAS Rs 16,61,290
DS Negi, IAS Rs 4,25,683
Vijay Madan, IAS Rs 58,223
Kiran Dhingra, IAS Rs 1,54,375
JK Dadoo Rs 2,53,271

Total Rs1,15,67,420
Period researched is April 2004 to 2007.

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