Joy of a Joystick

Cost of flying the circus around so far:

Wilfred D'Souza Rs22,89,428 February 2005-August 2007
Dayanand Narvekar Rs14,94,884 February 2000-March 2007
Pratapsing Rane Rs14,57,354 February 2005-April 2006
Digambar Kamat Rs11,40,395 January 2000-January 2005
Luizinho Faleiro Rs9,03,119 February 2005-February 2006
Manohar Parrikar Rs 8,26,596 December 2000-December 2004
Joaquim Alemao Rs7,57,473 July 2005-October 2007
Antanasio Monserratte 7,25,957 April 2003-March 2006
Francis D'Souza Rs7,00,473 July 2002-January 2004
Ramrao Desai Rs6,71,434 June 2000-January 2005
Pandurang Madkaikar Rs 6,65,608 November 2004-July 2007
Ramkrishna Dhavlikar Rs 6,62,246 July 2002-July 2007
Dr. Suresh K. Amonkar Rs5,16,910 September 2000-January 2005
Francisco Sardinha Rs 4,10,661 January 2000-October 2000
Subash Shirodkar Rs3,51,008 September 2005-May 2007
Victoria Fernandes Rs 3,24,680 March 2000-October 2000
Ravi Naik Rs 2,80,422 November 2000-September 2007
Vinay Tendulkar Rs2,28,648 July 2002-May 2004.
Shaikh Haroon Rs2,11,713 December 2000-May 2002
Jose Philip D'Souza Rs2,00,346 November 2000-October 2007
Manohar Azagaonkar Rs1,78,821 November 2002-December 2004
Prakash Velip Rs1,61,845 December 2000-December 2001
Sanjay Bandekar Rs1,36,113 November 2000-February 2002
Francisco Xavier Pacheco Rs1,24,655 December 2002-November 2003
Dayanand Mandrekar Rs1,12,298 July 2004-January 2005.
Philip Neri Rodrigues Rs1,06,778 December 2002-March 2007
Francisco D'Souza Rs 83,144
Somnath Zuwarkar Rs 65,377
Arecio D'Souza Rs 63,238
Francisco Silveira Rs 39,117
Mauvin Godinho Rs 27,216
Venkatesh Desai Rs 9,550

Total Rs1,65,89,753

Direction control
Apart from getting my nomination to be prez of the Bleeding Hearts club of MLAs – please remember she is always concerned about women's rights, and swears women can be protected and their cause furthered only if she is made a montri – Victoria also has a thing for flying. By the way the only other member of the club is Anil Salgaocar, whom you might remember actually wanted to buy out an SEZ, an action he claimed would benefit poor sods like you and me. The latest member to this exalted and exclusive club is Mauvin Godinho who in the space of a few hours (as the cops would say the intervening night of August 16/17) said if politicians and bureaucrats are corrupt, then the aam admi is no less. After biting the hand that feeds him, in a manner of speaking, he followed up with this gobstopper: "I have special feelings for the poor, needy." Yeah, right Mauvin, I feel you. And as mea culpas go, this one sucked. And, till now you thought the only MLA afflicted by the disease called foot and mouth, was Churchill Alemao. How wrong.

Victoria Fernandes
8-11 February 2000 Delhi Rs43,774
8-18 March 2000 Berlin Rs1,05,000
18-24 April 2000 Sydney/Singapore Rs1,37,813
26 September-I October 2000 Bangalore Rs10,105
Total Rs3,24,680

Dr. Suresh K. Amonkar Rs5,16,910 between September 2002-January 2005 evidently fulfilling with incisive precision his ambition to fly to phoren shores, never mind somebody else was going to foot the bill. And because of this his total expenditure was Rs3,38,125 to jet off to France once and Zurich/Geneva on another occasion. Sanjay Bandekar clocked an expense of Rs1,36,113 between November 2000-February 2002 homing in on snow-covered Ladakh once. After all, if you live in the land of beaches and balmy weather, you need to cool off in beautiful Ladakh.

Philip Neri Rodrigues spent Rs1,06,778 flying between December 2002-March 2007. For a man who is a minister and who made history by being instrumental in the fall of the Manohar Parrikar government, must say grudgingly that he is no spendthrift. Full marks to a man who apparently respected your and my taxes enough not to blow it up. Must say, I'm quite blown away.

Jose Philip D'Souza Rs2,00,346 between November 2000-October 2007 which if compared to his frequent flier colleagues makes one suspect he has a fear of flying. Francisco Xavier Pacheco Rs1,24,655 between December 2002-November 2003 including Rs93,206 spent on two trips to London, but that is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Pacheco's penchant for flying truly emerged in his latest avatar as tourism minister. Micky whizzed here and jetsetted there, enough to make people on the ground air sick. And with this ends flying with the circus. Hope you had a good flight

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Flying all over the place

On the wings of fancy…OR religious tourism

Now here's man after my heart, an old fashioned traveller but with a huge difference. You and I pay for his flights of fancy (literally not metaphorically) and in case you don't know it comes out of the huge tax you are paying because our good FM Chidambaram is merciless about taking an arm and a leg from salaried blokes.

In the case of our intrepid itinerant, I am unable to lay my hands on what must have been his hotel expenses in, for example Kathmandu. Desai who belongs to the party of the Gods even had a soft landing in Thailand, which is a melting pot of cultures from India and Asia and whose language has words derived from Sanskrit. Now being in above said party he must have taken in the beautiful temples in Bangkok, even if soldiers fighting in Vietnam in the sixties put it on the map -Pattaya and Phuket, in particular -for, shall we say, other reasons.

Then surely his 13 days (9-21 October 2001) in Bangalore and Mysore City must have cost you a bomb (oops, after the serial bombs that went off last weekend, it might be a regrettable choice of words!). But Desai seems to have a penchant for Bangalore and Mysore cities because he visited them twice. He seems to love Jaipur more - a fact that the Rajasthan's tourism department will surely applaud -because he visited thrice, once in 2001 and twice in different months in 2003. Actually, Desai clearly loves travel destinations because he's been to God's Own Country twice (2001 and 2004), to Shimla in the summer and Uttaranchal and Kulu in October/November. His travels abroad cost you Rs3,13,258, that's half the cost of his total travel cost of Rs Rs6,71,434.)

Ramrao Desai
11-15 June 2000 Hyderabad Rs12,675
20-25 April 2000 Kathmandu Rs17,258
13-16 February 2001 Delhi Rs14,800
13-22 May 2001 Udaipur/Mount Abu/Jaipur/Ratma/Delhi Rs29,485
24-27 June 2001 Mumbai/Rajkot
26 April-3 May 2001 Delhi/Simla/Colmandu/Mumbai Rs17,409
31 Jan-12 Feb 2002 New Zealand/Thailand Rs72,000
09-21 Oct 2002 Bangalore/Mysore Rs5,491
19-21 Oct 2001 Mumbai/Delhi Rs15,599
30 Oct-5 Nov 2001 Cochin Rs8,470
23-26 Dec 2001 Delhi Rs17,263
02-07 July 2002 Delhi Rs14,181
30 Oct-03 November 2002 Mumbai/Delhi/Kulu Rs16,255
17-18 December 2002 Mumbai Rs6,742
08-09 March 2003 Delhi Rs17,660
23-25 January 2003 Bangalore/Mumbai Rs18,740
01-02 February 2003 &
04-06 June 2003 Mumbai Rs7,802
12-17 May 2003 Bangalore/Mysore Rs10,420
05-10 May 2003 Jaipur/Mumbai Rs17,869
23-27 July 2003 Jaipur/Mumbai Rs20,685
24 October-02 November 2003 Singapore/Hong Kong &
14-23 October 2003 USA/Canada Rs2,24,000
25-26 September 2004 &
15-16 January 2004 Mumbai Rs14,050
24-26 March 2004 Mumbai/Cochin Rs14,960
27 October-9 November 2004 Delhi/Uttaranchal/Delhi Rs23,255
24-27 November 2004 Delhi Rs21,417
20-23 January 2005 Delhi/Mumbai Rs22,188
Total Rs6,71,434

The last time I checked, Joaquim Alemao was not the IT minister. Yet, between April/May 2006 to October 2007, he made ten trips to Bangalore, known as the Silicon Valley of India. "Bangalored" is a pejorative usage when someone in the US has seen his job being outsourced to Bangalore. But Joaquim got "Bangalored" in a different way culminating in him spending a whopping Rs 1,14,261 to-ing and fro-ing to the IT city in just two trips. All one can say is that hotel rooms don't come cheap in Bangalore. Maybe he was checking out how Bangalore handled garbage. But 10 times costing the exchequer Rs 2,71,705 and that does not include the trip he made to Bangalore but whose ticket was clubbed with his Mumbai visit. Maybe he should be conferred a Ph.D in garbage management.

Speaking of Mumbai, he made 21 trips. Why? Go figure! And while you are at it figure out what he did in Mumbai between 22 January and 26 December of 2006. Of the three trips he made to Chennai -maybe to check out the bio-methanation plant at Koyambedu, the wholesale fruit, vegetable and flower market where the bio-degradable garbage is converted to energy. As to why he went to Nagapattinam, that's a no-brainer. The Velankanni Church is there, stupid. It's a pilgrimage most Roman Catholics like to take.

Alemao's penchant was definitely for Bangalore, his liking for that destination beginning in April 2006 and the former garden city-turned-IT (crowded) city kind of grew on him. Culminating in him spending a whopping Rs1,14,261 on two trips in March 2007 itself in a total of Rs2,71,705 and that does not include one trip whose ticket cost was clubbed together with a trip to Mumbai.

Joaquim Alemao
18-27 July 2005 Mumbai Rs9187
5-7 September 2005 Mumbai Rs9602
21-23 October 2005 Mumbai/Delhi Rs24,322
14-17 September 2005 Mumbai/Chennai Rs23,905
2-4 December 2005 Delhi &
8-10 December Delhi Rs32,948
18-21 December Delhi Rs38,027 (3)
22 January-26 December 2006 Mumbai Rs14,486**
2-4 March 2006 Mumbai Rs37,821
4-5 April 2006 Delhi Rs37,672
28-30 March Mumbai Rs11,741
2-3 February 2006 Mumbai Rs13,440
26 April-1 May 2006 Bangalore Rs17,012
4-5 May 2006 Mumbai Rs13,970
22-23 May 2006 Bangalore Rs11,247
10-15 June 2006 Bangalore Rs27,440
3-8 August 2006 Pune/Mumbai Rs25,964
20-22 August 2006 Bangalore/Mumbai/Hyderabad Rs38,615
29 September-1 October 2006 Mumbai &
15-18 September 2006 Bangalore/Mumbai Rs27,315
13-14 October 2006 Mumbai Rs30,849
6-9 December 2006 Mumbai &
29-30 December 2006 Bangalore Rs31,893
10-12 January 2006 Mumbai &
20-29 January 2007 Mumbai Rs47,760
3-4 March 2007 Delhi Rs33,982
20-23 February 2007 Mumbai/Bangalore &
12-13 March 2007 Delhi/Bangalore Rs82,560
27-28 March 2007 Bangalore/Chennai Rs31,701
14-16 April 2007 Mumbai Rs15,302
1-5 July 2007 Bangalore/Chennai/Nagapattinam Rs35,815
7-8 August 2007 Mumbai Rs15,572
24-29 October 2007 Mumbai Rs17,325

Total Rs7,57,473

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Fly Robin Fly

Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines

The following are some hard facts I could manage to research on the cost of flying around our montris over a limited period only. But it proves that flying is a passion with them just as dining out was.
Wilfred D'Souza Rs22,89,428 Feb 2005-Aug 2007, Dayanand Narvekar Rs14,94,884 Feb 2000-Mar 2007, Pratapsing Rane Rs14,57,354 Feb 2005-Apr 2006, Digambar Kamat Rs11,40,395 Jan 2000-Jan 2005, Manohar Parrikar Rs8,26,596 Dec 2000-Dec 2004, Pandurang Madkaikar Rs6,65,608 Sept 2002-July 2007, Ramkrishna Dhavlikar Rs6,62,246 July 2002-July 2007, Francisco Sardinha Rs4,10,661 Jan 2000-Oct 2000, Ravi Naik Rs2,80,422 Nov 2000-Sept 2007, Francisco D'Souza Rs83,144, Somnath Zuwarkar Rs65,377, Arecio D'Souza Rs63,238 Subash Shirodkar Rs43,814, Francisco Silveira Rs39,117, Mauvin Godinho Rs27,216,Venkatesh Desai Rs9,550.
Total Rs95,59,050

Delhi darbar
Luizinho Faleiro's frequent flying to Delhi that could easily be called Goa's other capital city, cost suspiciously like there were too many hangers-on towing after him. Else, how can you explain a Delhi flight that cost Rs34,660 and one that went up to Rs38,010. Will the government that was gracious enough to curtail the number of guests allowed to be entertained by our montris and IAS officers, do the same for flying when it is obviously evident that sometimes our montris are patently over the weight limit when flying.

Luizinho Faleiro

Delhi
5-7 February 2005 Delhi Rs25,542, 27-30 June 2005 Delhi Rs34,660, 5-8 September 2005 Rs34,660, 9-10 December 2005 Delhi Rs37,713, 5-8 April 2006 Delhi Rs38,010, 18-20 October 2006 Delhi Rs39,260, 21-24 February 2007 Delhi Rs39,670.

Mumbai
29-30 January 2007 Mumbai Rs16,030, 7-9 February 2006 Delhi/Mumbai Rs27,915, 19-23 October 2005 Mumbai Rs9,130,

Bangalore
12-13 July 2005 Bangalore Rs6,551, 5-6 November 2006 Bangalore Rs10,948,

Globe trekking
21-30 April 2006 Brazil/Venezuela Mexico Rs5,83,030,
Total Rs9,03,119

Antanasio Monserratte
Mainly Mumbai
11-12 April 2003 Mumbai Rs22,407, 19-22 September 2003, 3-5 & 21-24 November 2003 Rs22,589, 6-8 & 13-15 January 2004 Mumbai Rs22,934, 26, 13-14 June 2005 Mumbai Rs27,114, 9-10 September 2005 Delhi, 26.09-1.10.2005 Delhi/Mumbai, 8-9 December 2005 Delhi Rs78,653, 21-27 December 2005 Delhi/Mumbai, 18-19 March, 30-31 March 2006 Mumbai Rs58,496, 30-31 March 2006 Delhi/Mumbai Rs38,349, 18-22 June 2006 Mumbai Rs9,758, 5-10 June 2006, 16-17 July 2006 Mumbai Rs30,982, 5-27 May 2006, 22-23 July 2006, 2-6 August 2006 Rs50,724, 22-23 May, 2006 Delhi, 2-7 September 2006 Mumbai, 23-26 September 2006, 29-09-5.10 2006 Mumbai Rs1,11,867, 17-20 October 2006, 12-16, 23-25 November 2006 Rs48,690.

Delhi flights
26-28 June 2005 Mumbai/Delhi Rs33,357, 9-12 July 2005 Mumbai/Delhi Rs40,844, 13-15 January 2006 Delhi Rs37,932, 16-18 September 2006 Rs40,537,
Total 7,25,957

C for Development, D for Churchill
Do I contrive to change the spelling of development, not exactly, just trying to put it in Churchill's perspective. He is after all, the only Congress politician who still insists Goans breathe only to oppose development. Let's take a single example of such development, in village Tivim. Not that Vasco, Margao and most of Panjim have even basic infrastructure like a sewerage system or enough potable water. A Mumbai builder Expat Properties (how appropriate) has begun building 32 duplex flats on 8,000 sq mt land sold by Anthony Lobo and his clan of fortunate inheritors. While EP's plans may be legitimate and within Goa's archaic planning framework, this huge complex will only add to the concrete jungle spreading over Goa, diminish the diminishing greenery, spoil the Goa's natural character and only make Goans more chary of the fact they no longer can afford real estate in their own land. Which is why Bodiem is opposing it.

Rules meant to be broken
For them it's not a question of controlled ODP's, building rules or regulations, it's a question of leaving Bodiem entirely out of the realm of the real estate sharks who are going to build which ever way anyway, rule and regulations be damned. It was Dhirubhai Ambani remember who coined the word "management" and put it to maximium use. They know no ODP, rule or regulation, will come to their aid because they know the government does not have the machinery to enforce any rule or regulation nor, does it have the political will to do so. Ghutka, smoking in public places, urinating, drug use, rape, murder, there is very little in that is not banned, but look around you. Even High Court bans are not enforced these days.

Back to Bodiem village in VP Sircaim where the sarpanch Diksha Kanolkar's role is definitely suspect. Villagers fear water from the huge swimming pool will be released into the earth along with chemical disinfectants, so will sewerage waste. And where will the water for the pool come from? Already, EP began to dig a bore well without permission of the VP (so much for regulatory systems.) It has shown 35 car parks for the 32 duplex flats but in a straight line, with no direct access to the road against the prevailing rule of reserving space 2.5 mt x 5 mt for each car park.

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The battle for Bardez

Know thy neighbour

A sanad which once gave a landlord or the simple land buyer of old a sense of accomplishment today has dangerous connotations. At worst it could mean doom for many villages and villagers as well battling to keep virtual gated communities out of their once charming village. But worse than that is the potential some of these sanads have for both village and villager because the outcome often is the building of yet another huge hotel complex construction as the names of many owners of these sanads mentioned in this article suggest. In other words, more migrant labourers, more traffic on the existing narrow village roads that were never intended for the current onslaught on them and more pressure on the existing unstable power supply.

As for the stress that is being put on the existing meagre potable water supply, there is really nothing more that can be said to put the water shortage problem in perspective. In other words all this put together suck the life out of your village. Says Tulio de Souza, attorney of the communidade of Guirim and an architect, "I am of the opinion that for any application for conversion above one acre (4000 sq m) and being done for commercial purposes, the Collector needs to examine whether the necessary infrastructure is available in the respective areas that would take care of the development that would follow the issuance of these sanads."

Sanads issued village-wise
Calangute -53
Soccorro -27
Candolim -23
Arpora –10
Salvador do Mundo -11
Sangolda -9
Nerul -6
Pilerne -6
Alto-Porvorim -3
Reis Magos -2
Assagao -1
Parra -1
Total -150

Alto Porvorim
A beneficiary to take note of in Alto Porvorim is Devashri Estate Developers the Dempo's construction outfit in the news recently. It got 300 sq m of land converted inside an amazing short period. The firm applied for the sanad on January 24, 2006 and was issued the sanad on April 8, 2006. A total of 4667 sq m was converted from agricultural to non-agricultural land.

Arpora
In village Arpora where a huge 1,22,115 sq m of land was converted the most conspicuous beneficiaries are Dr Fernando Jose Mascarhenas (81,726 sq mt) Prabhat Developers (1969) Riverside Home Developers (8557+5400.) Two non-Goans Shabbir AR Jhan (3850) and Kalpesh Natwarlal Gahil and Ravi Ramesh Chandra Gahil jointly converted 3300 sq m.

Calangute
In Calangute where there is little land left to build on, sanads were issued covering a total of 90,900.85 sq m of land it can safely be assumed must nearly all be prime land and accessible to roads. And as usual builders and hoteliers were behind 14 of the 23 conversions. GKP Real Estate Developers whose buildings in Calangute are ubiquitous converted a total of 1994 sq m (under two sanads.) Other land owners are DGN Resorts (1775) Ronil Hotels & Resorts (1950) Prudential Group (1725) Hindustan Hotel Ltd,. Panjim (2375) Reira Construction (2800) Nirvana Nest Buildcon (2000) New Builders & Developers (575+2991+700) Calangute Resorts (1275) Saldanha Developers (900) and Whispering Resorts (3000.) These land conversions represent 24,060 sq m of the land converted in Calangute.

Candolim
A total of 58,371.34 sq m of land was converted in this crammed village of narrow roads. As is the yardstick now builders showed the most interest. One builder Shelly Gonsalves got 1775 and 4675 sq mt converted and another 2940.34 sq m on behalf of Regal Builders. Other real estate developers with equally bigger plans are Navelkar Landmarks (1403) Phoenix Township (1310) Highland Constructions and Highland Holiday Homes (4150) Dena Karen Holiday Homes (1224) Devan Real Estate & Construction (12,733) Zephyr Holdings (2225) Tangerina Hotels (2775) and a Omprakash N Pariani (2207+2350)

Nerul
The Candolim-based builder Shelly Gonsalves also converted 6655 and 8912.50 sq m in this village next in line to be bludgeoned by builders after Calangute, Baga and Candolim.

Reis Magos
Fericem Engineering converted 8207 sq m

Salvador do Mundo
Fredric Developers converted 630 sq m, CV Constructions 2500 saq m and Navelkar Landmarks 8910 sq m.

Sangolda
Apseksha Homes 2425 sq, Tropical Estates 4546 sq m.

Socorro
Alcon Construction 15,398, RR Enterprises 1000 sq m, Acron Developers 5066 sq m and Tropical Estates (see Sangolda) 850 sq m.

Know your neighbour
In the event you want to know who your nextdoor neighbours will be, we reproduce here the survey nos. of land converted by some (only the very large land holdings) of the builders and hoteliers only. In Socorro, Alcons converted land existing under survey no 21/2. Sangolda: Topical Estates 2/11. Salvador do Mundo: Navelkar Landmarks -66/1. Reis Magos: Fericem Engineering -78/1-C. Nerul: Shelly Gonsalves 6665 sq m -11/1 & 8912.50 -5/1. Candolim: Regal Builders -149/4, Navelkar Landmarks -22/1-B, Phoenix Township -226/10 &14 part 8C part & 8D part, Highland Constructions -227/1, 227/2, Shelly Gonsalves 4675 sq m -224/2, 1775 sq m -10/1, Devan Real Estate -224/1 & 223/8, Zephyr Holdings 2225 sq -179/6 & 3150 sq m -208/3, Tangerina Hotels -138/13-D, 135/2 & 3.

(Note: Herald cannot find out if buildings have already been built on these lands as the Right To Information data provided only the applicants name, area, survey no, location, description of the forest/trees and the sanad application and issue date.)

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