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

(Feed back 9822152164, 0832-6658606 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)