Great Will for China
In a country where very, very little English is spoken and where IT, at least IT-related hardware is mass produced, the scale (that is, planning, execution and investment) would be extremely difficult for Goa’s babus and Dayanand Narvekar to begin to even comprehend. If you doubt this, visit your closest vendor and see for yourself from which country ninety per cent of accessories come from. In fact, it is on a scale, which India, that has concentrated on software only, will never be able to emulate. All this makes you wonder what the hell our chaps do in China to where they fly rather frequently. Wouldn’t it have been more prudent to have travelled to one of the many successful software technology parks in India or, simply invite the consultants who designed them over? And by the way, MN Rao, advisor & director of the Directorate of Information Technology, whose salary was later hiked to Rs 1 lakh a month despite protests was tasked with precisely this job. And yeah, this is the same guy who in September 2007 said Goa would be the first Indian state to have video phones within a year. In the pipeline he added, were integrated citizen services, and knowledge centres in every village. Blah, blah, blah. Guess the Chinese didn’t take our frequent flyers seriously either because they apparently learnt nothing out there. Who would?
Peking Duck
Dayanand Narvekar, ex-minister, IT – China – Rs 3,32,069; RP Pal, ex-secretary, IT – Phillipines – Rs 3,15,632; MN Rao ex-director, ITG – China – Rs 2,15,867; SR Shet, MD, ITG – China – Rs 2,09,132. Total expenditure: Rs 10,72,700.
Susana De Souza, director, sports – Zhuhai, China- expenditure unknown as it was borne by SGRI, New Delhi, Dubai-Doha Rs 2,08,570; Altinho Gomes, vice chairman, GITDC – China – Rs 2,68,233; MS Kamat, director, GITDC – China - Rs 2,68,233. Evidently what Dubai does to our babus and montris at the helm of the tourism industry, China does to these chaps. Others would call it water off a ducks back.
Dubai Anyone?
Dr Joseph SR De Souza, chief scientist – Gutemberg, Sweden – Rs 86,827; Capt James Braganza, deputy captain of ports – Singapore – Rs 33,325, Dr VN Jindal, dean, GMC – Dubai – Rs 81,908, Dusseldorf – Rs 1,42,676; Dr Maria Prisca Silveira, associate professor, GMC – Dusseldorf - Rs 1,50,000; Dr NG Dubashi, professor, GMC – Dubai – Rs 81,908; Dr Wise Pinto, professor, GMC – Dubai –Rs 81,908; Dr A Khandeparkar, associate professor, GMC – Dubai – Rs 81,908.
‘Cannes’ Do Anytime
If there was a Nobel Prize for self-indulgence in entertainment at the tax payers cost, the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) would win it year in, year out, without a doubt. The Kings and Queens of Entertainment spent a whopping Rs 19,37,000 to check out Cannes in the two years (2007-08, 2008-09) reviewed here. And after going there every year, they still haven’t learnt to recognize Ben Kingsley although he won an Oscar for the Richard Attenborough’s bioepic on Gandhi that was made in 1982 and which Doordarshan telecasts every Independence Day!
All they discovered was how to roll out the Red Carpet which brings me to the point, this government should despite itself spend at least a tiny fraction of what is spent each year on the International Film Festival of India to roll out a layer (thin will do) of tar on the Ribandar road leading to Old Goa. There is no estimate of how many Goan Catholics (including pilgrim tourists) attend the novenas beginning November 24 and up to St Francis Xavier’s feast on December 3, but the number of those who don’t is probably easier to guess. Sadly, for two years now the winding Ribandar stretch particularly is potholed and this year was crudely repaired with an uneven mix of tar and stone pounded into the potholes with a hand held implement! This is the way this government treats the aam aadmi. Not so for the rich and famous at IFFI, which I think even this thick-skinned government must know is rapidly losing its Mojo.
Diwan Chand, special secretary, information & publicity – Cannes – Rs 2,48,000; Nandini Paliwal, ex-CEO, ESG – Cannes – Rs 2,48,000; Nikhil Dessai, GM, ESG – Cannes – Rs 2,48,000; Ethel D’Costa, ex-PRO, ESG – Cannes – Rs 2,48,000; Filip Neri Rodrigues, minister, water resources, vice chairman, ESG – Cannes - Rs 3,15,000; Manguirish Pai Raikar, member, ESG – Cannes – Rs 3,15,000; Nikhil Dessai, GM, ESG – Cannes – Rs 3,15,000.
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Monday, December 7, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Flyaway Peter, flyaway Paul
‘Flier’ friendly government
It has been some time since good, simple folks like you stuck on terra firma, got to read about the globe trekking exploits of our montris and babus which I had covered extensively up to October 2007 (flying expenses only) in this column. And I mean you being grounded, in a nice way of course, because neither do you get an insurance-backed health plan like they do in the western world, nor does the government provide you with flight-paid-for holidays; though government employees do get a pretty fancy dole called leave travel allowance. But then, they are the chosen ones, not you. Here are some more recent flying exploits of our official flying class in 2007-8 and 2008-09, this time giving the entire expenditure incurred on the junkets. Fasten your seat belts please and be ready for takeoff seated in what I would think is your balcao armchair I guess you can call your home simulator, because my friend, simulation is all you get while they get to do the real flying.
Have country will fly
Anupam Kishore, joint secretary (DMU) –Singapore –Rs 1,05,895, Dattaram Sardessai, joint secretary (finance) – Zurich, Dusseldorf – Rs 1,44,057, Dubai – Rs 82,000; Dayanand Narvekar, minister, finance/IT – London, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro – Rs 5,14, 054; Anand Prakash, development commissioner – Zurich, Dusseldorf – Rs 1,68,254, Dubai – Rs 82,000; Uddipta Ray, secretary (finance) – Kathmandu – Rs 33,033; Alban Couto, advisor to government – Hong Kong – Rs 19,466; VK Jha, secretary (industries) – Dubai Rs 98,262, South Korea – Rs 25,816; Prakash N Dessai, chairman, GPSC – London – Rs 2,95,393; Agnelo Fernandes, chairman, EDC – New York – Rs 1,84,454.
Department of Tours
The Department of Tourism will not solve the shack problem despite all the official baloney about helping enterprising Goans; it will do nothing about keeping the beaches clean; provide walkable footpaths on the celebrated but much abused and battered beaches. Grandiose plans have been made at great expense by consultants from outside Goa and put on ice; by virtually every incumbent minister of tourism and Goa Tourism Develoment Corporation (GTDC) chairman has come out with some inspiration or the other. Some after expensive study tours abroad with their entourage in tow. Many of their plans you know well, as they have been well documented and oft repeated. These I think are gems, I think you might have easily have forgotten. Sometimes amnesia is good for the blood pressure!
In mid 2006, the GTDC said it intended to upgrade its chain of resorts to three-star category. With a dozen resorts, it wanted to add swimming pools to its existing properties along the coastline. Its chairperson, Fatima D’Sa, said, “We plan to make our resorts one of the best beach resorts in the country and create a niche in the hospitality sector across the country with low tariffs.” LoL (if you are not clued to SMS lingo, it means laugh out loud). Remember, the ‘Heritage House Scheme’, well all it did was inherit dust on some shelf in the tourism department. Or, a mantelpiece, maybe! So, why do our montris and babus travel abroad, which is why the tourism department can also be called department of tours? They of course swear these are missions to bring more tourists to Goa. Put that down as flights of fancy. But that’s Goa in a nutshell. Just look at the front page of your daily each morning. It’s all about ageing has-beens and mediocre actors, producers flying into Goa for the International Film Festival of India thanks to your tax money which these days is taking another whipping thanks to the galloping prices of your basic cooked-at-home food.
Flights of fancy?
Francisco (Micky) Pacheco, minister, tourism/housing – London – Rs 6,66,875, London – Rs 3,32,637, JP Singh; chief secretary – Shanghai – Rs 62,956, Frankfurt, Lisbon – Rs 2,50,794, Frankfurt, Berlin – Rs 4,94,981, New York – Rs 3,73,499, incurring a total expenditure of Rs 11,82,230; M. Moddasir, secretary (tourism) – Dubai – Rs 1,57,424, London – Rs 1,18,798, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai – Rs 1,40,046, Zurich, Madrid, Frankfurt – Rs 1,48,463, Shanghai – Rs 55,274, Dubai, London – Rs 1,75,652, incurring a total expenditure of Rs 7,95,657; Pamela Mascarenhas, dy. Director – Berlin – Rs 1,37,503; Arvind Loliyenkar, director of tourism – New York - Rs 72,738, London – Rs 1,68,997; Elvis Gomes, director of tourism – Lisbon 1,36,497; Anthony J D’Souza, officer on special duty (O.S.D) – Lisbon -1,64,452; Anthony J D’Souza, O.S.D – Lisbon, Madrid – Rs 2,14,749, VGS Navelkar, assistant director – Rs 1,62,649; Elvis Gomes – Dubai – Rs 60,943; JN Sangodkar, assistant director – Berlin – Rs 1,74,847; Elvis Gomes –Moscow – Rs 97,495; Hanumant Parsenkar, deputy director – Almaty, Kazakhstan – Rs 73,068; Elvis Gomes – Moscow – Rs 1,10,610; London – Rs 1,33,865; Pamela Mascarhenas –Lisbon – Rs 1,31,854; Swapnil M Naik, director of tourism – Berlin – Rs 1,48,852; Pamela Mascarhenas – Berlin – Rs 1,36,990; Francisco (Micky) Pacheco – New York – Rs 1,84,454; Sanjit Rodrigues, MD, GTDC – Sri Lanka – Rs 48,088; Shyam Satardekar, chairman, GTDC – London – Rs 3,06,381, Portugal – Rs 2,28,918, Moscow – Rs 2,07,197; Benjamin Braganza, MD, GTD – Portugal – Rs 1,69,818, Moscow – Rs 1,66,669. All that dizzy travel cost a huge Rs 6,41,5,033. The garbage meanwhile accumulates in hideous heaps alongside the roads and lanes that lead to the beaches that may have cost less to clean than the GTDC chairman’s trips to London and Lisbon.
Notice too, how most trips are to Dubai, London and Lisbon. My humble opinion is that NRGs might come from Lisbon, but tourists? So why go there to woo them when they will come anyway. And Dubai? Why? Is everyone going there to learn how Dubai has crashed world financial markets this week after it sought a six-month reprieve on debt payments that risked triggering the biggest sovereign default since Argentina’s financial crash in 2001? And London, unless it is to learn how to wind up Big Ben, why would anyone go to invite tourists? Remember we conquered that frontier, evidenced by the number of charters that land at Dabolim, at least 25 years ago?
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
It has been some time since good, simple folks like you stuck on terra firma, got to read about the globe trekking exploits of our montris and babus which I had covered extensively up to October 2007 (flying expenses only) in this column. And I mean you being grounded, in a nice way of course, because neither do you get an insurance-backed health plan like they do in the western world, nor does the government provide you with flight-paid-for holidays; though government employees do get a pretty fancy dole called leave travel allowance. But then, they are the chosen ones, not you. Here are some more recent flying exploits of our official flying class in 2007-8 and 2008-09, this time giving the entire expenditure incurred on the junkets. Fasten your seat belts please and be ready for takeoff seated in what I would think is your balcao armchair I guess you can call your home simulator, because my friend, simulation is all you get while they get to do the real flying.
Have country will fly
Anupam Kishore, joint secretary (DMU) –Singapore –Rs 1,05,895, Dattaram Sardessai, joint secretary (finance) – Zurich, Dusseldorf – Rs 1,44,057, Dubai – Rs 82,000; Dayanand Narvekar, minister, finance/IT – London, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro – Rs 5,14, 054; Anand Prakash, development commissioner – Zurich, Dusseldorf – Rs 1,68,254, Dubai – Rs 82,000; Uddipta Ray, secretary (finance) – Kathmandu – Rs 33,033; Alban Couto, advisor to government – Hong Kong – Rs 19,466; VK Jha, secretary (industries) – Dubai Rs 98,262, South Korea – Rs 25,816; Prakash N Dessai, chairman, GPSC – London – Rs 2,95,393; Agnelo Fernandes, chairman, EDC – New York – Rs 1,84,454.
Department of Tours
The Department of Tourism will not solve the shack problem despite all the official baloney about helping enterprising Goans; it will do nothing about keeping the beaches clean; provide walkable footpaths on the celebrated but much abused and battered beaches. Grandiose plans have been made at great expense by consultants from outside Goa and put on ice; by virtually every incumbent minister of tourism and Goa Tourism Develoment Corporation (GTDC) chairman has come out with some inspiration or the other. Some after expensive study tours abroad with their entourage in tow. Many of their plans you know well, as they have been well documented and oft repeated. These I think are gems, I think you might have easily have forgotten. Sometimes amnesia is good for the blood pressure!
In mid 2006, the GTDC said it intended to upgrade its chain of resorts to three-star category. With a dozen resorts, it wanted to add swimming pools to its existing properties along the coastline. Its chairperson, Fatima D’Sa, said, “We plan to make our resorts one of the best beach resorts in the country and create a niche in the hospitality sector across the country with low tariffs.” LoL (if you are not clued to SMS lingo, it means laugh out loud). Remember, the ‘Heritage House Scheme’, well all it did was inherit dust on some shelf in the tourism department. Or, a mantelpiece, maybe! So, why do our montris and babus travel abroad, which is why the tourism department can also be called department of tours? They of course swear these are missions to bring more tourists to Goa. Put that down as flights of fancy. But that’s Goa in a nutshell. Just look at the front page of your daily each morning. It’s all about ageing has-beens and mediocre actors, producers flying into Goa for the International Film Festival of India thanks to your tax money which these days is taking another whipping thanks to the galloping prices of your basic cooked-at-home food.
Flights of fancy?
Francisco (Micky) Pacheco, minister, tourism/housing – London – Rs 6,66,875, London – Rs 3,32,637, JP Singh; chief secretary – Shanghai – Rs 62,956, Frankfurt, Lisbon – Rs 2,50,794, Frankfurt, Berlin – Rs 4,94,981, New York – Rs 3,73,499, incurring a total expenditure of Rs 11,82,230; M. Moddasir, secretary (tourism) – Dubai – Rs 1,57,424, London – Rs 1,18,798, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai – Rs 1,40,046, Zurich, Madrid, Frankfurt – Rs 1,48,463, Shanghai – Rs 55,274, Dubai, London – Rs 1,75,652, incurring a total expenditure of Rs 7,95,657; Pamela Mascarenhas, dy. Director – Berlin – Rs 1,37,503; Arvind Loliyenkar, director of tourism – New York - Rs 72,738, London – Rs 1,68,997; Elvis Gomes, director of tourism – Lisbon 1,36,497; Anthony J D’Souza, officer on special duty (O.S.D) – Lisbon -1,64,452; Anthony J D’Souza, O.S.D – Lisbon, Madrid – Rs 2,14,749, VGS Navelkar, assistant director – Rs 1,62,649; Elvis Gomes – Dubai – Rs 60,943; JN Sangodkar, assistant director – Berlin – Rs 1,74,847; Elvis Gomes –Moscow – Rs 97,495; Hanumant Parsenkar, deputy director – Almaty, Kazakhstan – Rs 73,068; Elvis Gomes – Moscow – Rs 1,10,610; London – Rs 1,33,865; Pamela Mascarhenas –Lisbon – Rs 1,31,854; Swapnil M Naik, director of tourism – Berlin – Rs 1,48,852; Pamela Mascarhenas – Berlin – Rs 1,36,990; Francisco (Micky) Pacheco – New York – Rs 1,84,454; Sanjit Rodrigues, MD, GTDC – Sri Lanka – Rs 48,088; Shyam Satardekar, chairman, GTDC – London – Rs 3,06,381, Portugal – Rs 2,28,918, Moscow – Rs 2,07,197; Benjamin Braganza, MD, GTD – Portugal – Rs 1,69,818, Moscow – Rs 1,66,669. All that dizzy travel cost a huge Rs 6,41,5,033. The garbage meanwhile accumulates in hideous heaps alongside the roads and lanes that lead to the beaches that may have cost less to clean than the GTDC chairman’s trips to London and Lisbon.
Notice too, how most trips are to Dubai, London and Lisbon. My humble opinion is that NRGs might come from Lisbon, but tourists? So why go there to woo them when they will come anyway. And Dubai? Why? Is everyone going there to learn how Dubai has crashed world financial markets this week after it sought a six-month reprieve on debt payments that risked triggering the biggest sovereign default since Argentina’s financial crash in 2001? And London, unless it is to learn how to wind up Big Ben, why would anyone go to invite tourists? Remember we conquered that frontier, evidenced by the number of charters that land at Dabolim, at least 25 years ago?
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Russian Roulette
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
The director general of police Bhim Singh Bassi and the inspector general of police KD Singh could go down as the two funniest cops that hit town ever (Funny not in a ha ha way!) Bassi defended the Russian belly dance sizzle (apparently Belgian too) at the new police station at Anjuna as not being ‘indecent’. Singh said he saved the taxpayer Rs 3,00,000. Then like Russian Roulette and having fired the first chamber, it hit them. Now, they had to fire all the five remaining. What we got was a ‘belly’ full and finally the last rather weak shot, BLASPHEMY – ‘going to casinos is like going to temples or churches’ – snapped up eagerly by Manohar Parrikar. Only he (Parrikar) got it right. What next Mr. Bassi? A ‘Full Monty’ at police headquarters to raise funds denied you by the Centre for a commando force?
Three questions still dog me though: why was virtually half the second rung brass invited to the m.v Casino Royale, why didn’t their families go along too, after all, cops take their families to temples and churches and finally, why did Yogi, the event organizer based in Delhi agree to fly down an entire troupe of belly dancers, who don’t come cheap in the first place, and that would include putting them up in an expensive hotel? What’s in it for him, or is Yogi like the friendly fast talking Yogi Bear created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Nah, doesn’t happen in India. There’s got to be a catch here somewhere.
'Police Academy’ of another kind
It happens all the time. Non-Goans get to take all those lucrative jobs (!) going abegging at the industrial estates, though as you will see soon, there aren’t too many on offer. Goan job seekers and entrepreneurs seemed hemmed in from all sides – they couldn’t even bid to keep our police entertained as the Anjuna gig proved. Here is a list of industry biggies of the kind Aleixo Sequeira said would give Goans jobs, if only we let them in, never mind if they trample all over us. The list given to me by the Voice of Villagers, Nagoa, gives the number of ‘contract’ workers employed at the Verna industrial estate, which the organization that opposes any further massive and unplanned expansion of the industrial estate, obtained under Right to Information. Shockingly, the data reveals that 2,421 contracted workers (daily wagers) were supplied by 72 labour contractors in the two years to April 30, 2007 when the data was issued. The deputy labour commissioner, Margao stated clearly he did not know how many of these contracted workers were Goan. His office did not maintain a job profile record of the contracted workers. In fact his office did not even have basic data. The list: Ratiopharm -25, Ratiopharm -18, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories -10, Cipla -20, Sanofi Aventie -10, Cipla -20, Cipla -15, Lupin -16, Glenmark Lab -20, Glenmark Lab -10, Ratiopharm -40, Ratiopharm -100, Ratiopharm -18, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories -15, Marksan Pharma -20, Cipla -50, Lupin -150, Marksons Pharma -20, Marksons -30, Cipla -25, Glenmark -20, Ratiopharm 40, Marksons Pharma 40, Watson Pharma -15, Sanofi Synthelabo -150, Watson Pharma -10, Erica Lifescience -150, Ratiopharma -25, Aventis Pharma -50, Lupin -40, Lupin -25, Watson Pharma -20, Sonafi Synthelabs -19, Sonafi Synthelabs -20, Micro Labs -25. The repetition in the number of companies is because these companies have bifurcated themselves for obvious reasons and deal separately with different labour contractors.
Don’t think these MNCs and big players would have added to their work force since then. They don’t because what the MNCs which have global footprints (including some Indian companies) have in Goa, are basically assembly line productions or they provide research and development. Their initial investments are undoubtedly huge, but these investments hardly open out to Goan civil contractors, who, if they are lucky only get some tertiary contracts. Don’t you think it’s strange too that the 72 labour contractors well outnumber the number of pharmaceutical companies, which goes to prove that the lucre is in hiring our cheap labour, and not as you are led to believe, in the jobs pharmaceutical companies provide. For the record, the deputy labour commissioner issued 1,149 licences to labour contractors as on April 2007.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
The director general of police Bhim Singh Bassi and the inspector general of police KD Singh could go down as the two funniest cops that hit town ever (Funny not in a ha ha way!) Bassi defended the Russian belly dance sizzle (apparently Belgian too) at the new police station at Anjuna as not being ‘indecent’. Singh said he saved the taxpayer Rs 3,00,000. Then like Russian Roulette and having fired the first chamber, it hit them. Now, they had to fire all the five remaining. What we got was a ‘belly’ full and finally the last rather weak shot, BLASPHEMY – ‘going to casinos is like going to temples or churches’ – snapped up eagerly by Manohar Parrikar. Only he (Parrikar) got it right. What next Mr. Bassi? A ‘Full Monty’ at police headquarters to raise funds denied you by the Centre for a commando force?
Three questions still dog me though: why was virtually half the second rung brass invited to the m.v Casino Royale, why didn’t their families go along too, after all, cops take their families to temples and churches and finally, why did Yogi, the event organizer based in Delhi agree to fly down an entire troupe of belly dancers, who don’t come cheap in the first place, and that would include putting them up in an expensive hotel? What’s in it for him, or is Yogi like the friendly fast talking Yogi Bear created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Nah, doesn’t happen in India. There’s got to be a catch here somewhere.
'Police Academy’ of another kind
It happens all the time. Non-Goans get to take all those lucrative jobs (!) going abegging at the industrial estates, though as you will see soon, there aren’t too many on offer. Goan job seekers and entrepreneurs seemed hemmed in from all sides – they couldn’t even bid to keep our police entertained as the Anjuna gig proved. Here is a list of industry biggies of the kind Aleixo Sequeira said would give Goans jobs, if only we let them in, never mind if they trample all over us. The list given to me by the Voice of Villagers, Nagoa, gives the number of ‘contract’ workers employed at the Verna industrial estate, which the organization that opposes any further massive and unplanned expansion of the industrial estate, obtained under Right to Information. Shockingly, the data reveals that 2,421 contracted workers (daily wagers) were supplied by 72 labour contractors in the two years to April 30, 2007 when the data was issued. The deputy labour commissioner, Margao stated clearly he did not know how many of these contracted workers were Goan. His office did not maintain a job profile record of the contracted workers. In fact his office did not even have basic data. The list: Ratiopharm -25, Ratiopharm -18, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories -10, Cipla -20, Sanofi Aventie -10, Cipla -20, Cipla -15, Lupin -16, Glenmark Lab -20, Glenmark Lab -10, Ratiopharm -40, Ratiopharm -100, Ratiopharm -18, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories -15, Marksan Pharma -20, Cipla -50, Lupin -150, Marksons Pharma -20, Marksons -30, Cipla -25, Glenmark -20, Ratiopharm 40, Marksons Pharma 40, Watson Pharma -15, Sanofi Synthelabo -150, Watson Pharma -10, Erica Lifescience -150, Ratiopharma -25, Aventis Pharma -50, Lupin -40, Lupin -25, Watson Pharma -20, Sonafi Synthelabs -19, Sonafi Synthelabs -20, Micro Labs -25. The repetition in the number of companies is because these companies have bifurcated themselves for obvious reasons and deal separately with different labour contractors.
Don’t think these MNCs and big players would have added to their work force since then. They don’t because what the MNCs which have global footprints (including some Indian companies) have in Goa, are basically assembly line productions or they provide research and development. Their initial investments are undoubtedly huge, but these investments hardly open out to Goan civil contractors, who, if they are lucky only get some tertiary contracts. Don’t you think it’s strange too that the 72 labour contractors well outnumber the number of pharmaceutical companies, which goes to prove that the lucre is in hiring our cheap labour, and not as you are led to believe, in the jobs pharmaceutical companies provide. For the record, the deputy labour commissioner issued 1,149 licences to labour contractors as on April 2007.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Monday, November 16, 2009
The tsunami 'SEZ'
The minister most concerned about getting jobs for Goans by creating SEZs and his pal, a commissioner with a globetrotting devotion to WHERE Goans have migrated, besides a professed love for getting jobs for non-resident Goans; have another thing in common apart from their shared love for creating imaginary jobs -they don’t read the newspapers. So, I suggest to them, try Google instead, it’s easier, quicker and your broadband comes free. I discovered that in whatever nonjudgmental way you Google, you still get a tsunami of opposition to SEZs on your screen. I even tried ‘is SEZ opposed in India’ and got the same answers. It appears none want it, except the minister.
There’s only one thing you can’t read in the thousands of words written about SEZ opposition when you Google, and that is the fact that industry in Goa pays slave wages (Rs 103 per day) to its workers and that labour contractors purposefully rotate contract workers between different employers, so there is always a break in their service. (***Are the minister and his pal doing something about that?)
Calling their bluff
Remember the number of times Luizinho Faleiro said industries would be forced to employ Goans although we just can't seem to live on those miserly salaries, and the times Aleixo Sequeira said SEZs will provide jobs for Goans, or the times Vishwajit Rane and the Dhavlikar duo have also said that, also thbat Chandrakant Kavlekar is eternally confused between SEZ and food park? Well, it happened that the MLA Damodar Naik asked for the names, addresses and date of joining of all workers employed by the companies in the Cipla group in Goa in the Goa Assembly late in 2007. The amazing answer from Digambar Kamat was: "Details such as names etc are not maintained by government." Einstein could not have been cleverer.
Sons of which soil?
Yet, another question asked was to furnish the number of Goan workers Cipla employed. Cipla replied: "The total number of local recruits/Goan origin is 1728 (contract and regular employees.)" For the record, Cipla cleverly parceled off its group (you can guess why) into seven different companies employing 2396 workers. You can guess too that nothing has changed in Goa since then.
And for readers in the mood to Google, do check on a report I think was released in 2007 by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), which sharply criticised the Indian government for offering unnecessary tax incentives to developers of SEZs. These incentives can open loopholes for tax evasion and undermine investments in firms located outside the SEZs, the report argued.
The ADB report added: "Some of the loudest political opposition to SEZ projects comes from the landless, who may not receive compensation for the land conversion and who lack the capital to become self-employed."
More bluff
In this same column titled ‘Living it up’ dated January 21, 2008, I wrote: ‘Goa's flying circus will never let you down because they don't suffer from jet lag. They just keep flying. The Commissioner for NRI affairs Eduardo Faleiro spent Rs 86,691 on trips to Kuwait and Qatar in November 2007. The Director, NRI Affairs UD Kamat spent Rs 66,930 on the same junket and Rs 58,807 in June 2007 to fly to Lisbon. The Chairman, Overseas Employment Agency of Goa VAdm John D'Silva spent Rs 66,930 on the Kuwait and Qatar junket. Evidently not satisfied with their efforts abroad they looked towards the homeland too. Faleiro spent Rs 3,64,535 to travel within India, while D'Silva spent Rs 78,566 and Kamat spent Rs 1,03,933.’
I have some more information (total cost this time) now on those junkets. Kamat spent Rs 1,43,037 on his seven day junket to Portugal via Frankfurt, He spent Rs 1,94,479 over nine days in Kuwait and Qatar, Rs 1,75,738 for nine days in Oman, UAE and Bahrain, Rs 1,97,090 over 11 days in Mozambique and Kenya and Rs 2,33,364 over ten days in Canada. Total: Rs 9,43,708. Faleiro spent Rs 4,52,272 for nine days in Kuwait and Qatar, Rs 5,22,905 for nine days in Oman, UAE and Bahrain, Rs 6,84,735 over 11 days in Mozambique and Kenya, and Rs 8,89,514 over ten days in Canada. Total: Rs 25,49,426. D’Silva spent Rs 1,36,267 over nine days in Oman, UAE and Bahrain and Rs 1,70,775 over nine days in Kuwait and Qatar. Total: Rs 3,070,42. Grand total: Rs 38,00,176. And so after yet another extravaganza the two-day ‘Fourth Global Goan Convention’ held on November 5-7 at Muscat and yet another strident call for ‘self-employment for NRGs”, do you see any job opportunities on the horizon? And for crying out loud, will one of you this time do the leg work and seek the expenditure of this one under Right to Information and pass it on to me. Honestly, I am tiring of doing this on my ownsome lonesome. Call 2280935/9822152164.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
The minister most concerned about getting jobs for Goans by creating SEZs and his pal, a commissioner with a globetrotting devotion to WHERE Goans have migrated, besides a professed love for getting jobs for non-resident Goans; have another thing in common apart from their shared love for creating imaginary jobs -they don’t read the newspapers. So, I suggest to them, try Google instead, it’s easier, quicker and your broadband comes free. I discovered that in whatever nonjudgmental way you Google, you still get a tsunami of opposition to SEZs on your screen. I even tried ‘is SEZ opposed in India’ and got the same answers. It appears none want it, except the minister.
There’s only one thing you can’t read in the thousands of words written about SEZ opposition when you Google, and that is the fact that industry in Goa pays slave wages (Rs 103 per day) to its workers and that labour contractors purposefully rotate contract workers between different employers, so there is always a break in their service. (***Are the minister and his pal doing something about that?)
Calling their bluff
Remember the number of times Luizinho Faleiro said industries would be forced to employ Goans although we just can't seem to live on those miserly salaries, and the times Aleixo Sequeira said SEZs will provide jobs for Goans, or the times Vishwajit Rane and the Dhavlikar duo have also said that, also thbat Chandrakant Kavlekar is eternally confused between SEZ and food park? Well, it happened that the MLA Damodar Naik asked for the names, addresses and date of joining of all workers employed by the companies in the Cipla group in Goa in the Goa Assembly late in 2007. The amazing answer from Digambar Kamat was: "Details such as names etc are not maintained by government." Einstein could not have been cleverer.
Sons of which soil?
Yet, another question asked was to furnish the number of Goan workers Cipla employed. Cipla replied: "The total number of local recruits/Goan origin is 1728 (contract and regular employees.)" For the record, Cipla cleverly parceled off its group (you can guess why) into seven different companies employing 2396 workers. You can guess too that nothing has changed in Goa since then.
And for readers in the mood to Google, do check on a report I think was released in 2007 by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), which sharply criticised the Indian government for offering unnecessary tax incentives to developers of SEZs. These incentives can open loopholes for tax evasion and undermine investments in firms located outside the SEZs, the report argued.
The ADB report added: "Some of the loudest political opposition to SEZ projects comes from the landless, who may not receive compensation for the land conversion and who lack the capital to become self-employed."
More bluff
In this same column titled ‘Living it up’ dated January 21, 2008, I wrote: ‘Goa's flying circus will never let you down because they don't suffer from jet lag. They just keep flying. The Commissioner for NRI affairs Eduardo Faleiro spent Rs 86,691 on trips to Kuwait and Qatar in November 2007. The Director, NRI Affairs UD Kamat spent Rs 66,930 on the same junket and Rs 58,807 in June 2007 to fly to Lisbon. The Chairman, Overseas Employment Agency of Goa VAdm John D'Silva spent Rs 66,930 on the Kuwait and Qatar junket. Evidently not satisfied with their efforts abroad they looked towards the homeland too. Faleiro spent Rs 3,64,535 to travel within India, while D'Silva spent Rs 78,566 and Kamat spent Rs 1,03,933.’
I have some more information (total cost this time) now on those junkets. Kamat spent Rs 1,43,037 on his seven day junket to Portugal via Frankfurt, He spent Rs 1,94,479 over nine days in Kuwait and Qatar, Rs 1,75,738 for nine days in Oman, UAE and Bahrain, Rs 1,97,090 over 11 days in Mozambique and Kenya and Rs 2,33,364 over ten days in Canada. Total: Rs 9,43,708. Faleiro spent Rs 4,52,272 for nine days in Kuwait and Qatar, Rs 5,22,905 for nine days in Oman, UAE and Bahrain, Rs 6,84,735 over 11 days in Mozambique and Kenya, and Rs 8,89,514 over ten days in Canada. Total: Rs 25,49,426. D’Silva spent Rs 1,36,267 over nine days in Oman, UAE and Bahrain and Rs 1,70,775 over nine days in Kuwait and Qatar. Total: Rs 3,070,42. Grand total: Rs 38,00,176. And so after yet another extravaganza the two-day ‘Fourth Global Goan Convention’ held on November 5-7 at Muscat and yet another strident call for ‘self-employment for NRGs”, do you see any job opportunities on the horizon? And for crying out loud, will one of you this time do the leg work and seek the expenditure of this one under Right to Information and pass it on to me. Honestly, I am tiring of doing this on my ownsome lonesome. Call 2280935/9822152164.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Oath of Hypocrites
The Hippocratic Oath generally spelt out how doctors should ethically practice their trade. But, you should know that I intentionally avoided using the word medicine. That was in another millennium. Times have changed. There is a new ‘oath’ that offers doctors commissions that incredibly a Margao-based hospital published, without a care in the world, which is how I have a copy. If Hippocrates were to come alive out of the blue, my diagnosis tells me he would have gone prostrate equally swiftly and would have to be wheeled swiftly into the ICU. The commissions this private hospital offers speaks for itself.
Laparoscopic surgery
Gall stones surgery -cost Rs 25,000, doctors commission Rs 3,500; laparoscopic appendix Rs 12,000, Rs 1,500; laparoscopic hernia Rs 15,000, Rs 2,500.
Cancer
Ca breast surgery -cost Rs 20,000, doctors commission Rs 2,500; thyroid Rs 20,000, Rs 3,000, Ca colon stomach Rs 25,000, Rs 3,500.
Urology
PCNL (kidney stone) surgery -cost Rs 25,000, doctors commission Rs 3,500; URS (ureteric stones) Rs 15,000, Rs 2,500; TRUP (prostate) Rs 20,000, Rs 3,000; bladder stone Rs 10,000, Rs 1,500.
Gyneacology
LAP hysterectomy(hyst) surgery -cost Rs 30,000, doctors commission Rs 3,000; Lap myomectomy Rs 30,000, Rs 3,000; Diag hyst + lap for infertility Rs 10,000; Rs 1,000; open hyst Rs 20,000, Rs 2,500; open myomectomy Rs 20,000, Rs 2,000; LAP for cyst, ectopic pregnancy, adhesiolysis Rs 20,000, Rs 2,000; hysteroscopic procedures fibroid Rs 15,000, Rs 1,500.
Physician heal they self
So far, the central government’s efforts to curb bribing doctors have been like giving the fox the job of guarding the henhouse, despite the fact that more than a quarter of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) account for 70% of the drug market in India and who are subsidiaries of companies that have been penalised in the US for illegally promoting various drugs through inducement. Recently, Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion in one of the biggest healthcare fraud settlements. It wined and dined doctors sending them on exotic trips. Eli Lilly was fined $1.42. Glaxosmithkline (GSK) has reserved $400 million to settle charges of promoting unapproved use of drugs and of kickbacks to doctors related to several products. Bristol-Myers Squibb was fined $515 million in 2007. There’s more to this.
The huge profit margins on drugs big pharma companies make, to all intents and purposes, allow them to effectively bribe doctors. In fact, small-scale manufacturers of drugs have always maintained that drug prices can easily be brought down 50 per cent. But if big pharmas did that, would they have the money to bribe doctors, which includes sending them on holidays abroad and in India?
Healing or self-healing
A doctor told me a rep of a Chennai-based pharmaceutical company (name withheld) whom he described as ‘paan chewing and looking more like a thug’ offered him free encyclopaedias to begin with (he was starting out his practice) and a laptop next. The rep’s complaint was that pharmacies in his jurisdiction in Tiswadi were not prescribing his company’s drugs. A representative of an ethical pharma company said he received complaints from doctors of bribes being offered. Pharmaceutical companies pressurize pharmacies to sell their drugs, even if a doctor prescribes another drug; which is precisely why you never seem to get the drug you were prescribed. Which is why, often what should be a quick visit to the family doctor turns into a merry-go-round if you dare insist on every letter of the word on your prescription.
‘Vitamin M’ is also administered by a certain hospital into the veins of your traffic cops and the 108 ambulance service, to ‘induce’ them to rush trauma patients to the hospital. Breaking the Hippocratic Oath in Calangute and the coastal tourist belt extends to bribing hotel staff and taxi drivers to become ‘inclined’ towards certain private clinics, especially one near Mapusa, and particularly dental clinics.
A friend who got an attack of gastritis in the night at a resort in Anjuna had to shell out Rs 800 as doctors’ fees. The irony was that the resort owner was a friend whose friend the doctor was! This particular doctor makes a killing (quite literally) by preying on foreign tourists at resorts!
Government in intensive care
Sent there by the mushrooming of private hospitals, the government sees to it that all the major hospicios, including the health centres, are virtually redundant. The common refrain of doctors is ‘we are short of drugs and consumables.’ The Corlim health centre, built in a remote part of the village, is as a result, barely accessible.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
The Hippocratic Oath generally spelt out how doctors should ethically practice their trade. But, you should know that I intentionally avoided using the word medicine. That was in another millennium. Times have changed. There is a new ‘oath’ that offers doctors commissions that incredibly a Margao-based hospital published, without a care in the world, which is how I have a copy. If Hippocrates were to come alive out of the blue, my diagnosis tells me he would have gone prostrate equally swiftly and would have to be wheeled swiftly into the ICU. The commissions this private hospital offers speaks for itself.
Laparoscopic surgery
Gall stones surgery -cost Rs 25,000, doctors commission Rs 3,500; laparoscopic appendix Rs 12,000, Rs 1,500; laparoscopic hernia Rs 15,000, Rs 2,500.
Cancer
Ca breast surgery -cost Rs 20,000, doctors commission Rs 2,500; thyroid Rs 20,000, Rs 3,000, Ca colon stomach Rs 25,000, Rs 3,500.
Urology
PCNL (kidney stone) surgery -cost Rs 25,000, doctors commission Rs 3,500; URS (ureteric stones) Rs 15,000, Rs 2,500; TRUP (prostate) Rs 20,000, Rs 3,000; bladder stone Rs 10,000, Rs 1,500.
Gyneacology
LAP hysterectomy(hyst) surgery -cost Rs 30,000, doctors commission Rs 3,000; Lap myomectomy Rs 30,000, Rs 3,000; Diag hyst + lap for infertility Rs 10,000; Rs 1,000; open hyst Rs 20,000, Rs 2,500; open myomectomy Rs 20,000, Rs 2,000; LAP for cyst, ectopic pregnancy, adhesiolysis Rs 20,000, Rs 2,000; hysteroscopic procedures fibroid Rs 15,000, Rs 1,500.
Physician heal they self
So far, the central government’s efforts to curb bribing doctors have been like giving the fox the job of guarding the henhouse, despite the fact that more than a quarter of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) account for 70% of the drug market in India and who are subsidiaries of companies that have been penalised in the US for illegally promoting various drugs through inducement. Recently, Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion in one of the biggest healthcare fraud settlements. It wined and dined doctors sending them on exotic trips. Eli Lilly was fined $1.42. Glaxosmithkline (GSK) has reserved $400 million to settle charges of promoting unapproved use of drugs and of kickbacks to doctors related to several products. Bristol-Myers Squibb was fined $515 million in 2007. There’s more to this.
The huge profit margins on drugs big pharma companies make, to all intents and purposes, allow them to effectively bribe doctors. In fact, small-scale manufacturers of drugs have always maintained that drug prices can easily be brought down 50 per cent. But if big pharmas did that, would they have the money to bribe doctors, which includes sending them on holidays abroad and in India?
Healing or self-healing
A doctor told me a rep of a Chennai-based pharmaceutical company (name withheld) whom he described as ‘paan chewing and looking more like a thug’ offered him free encyclopaedias to begin with (he was starting out his practice) and a laptop next. The rep’s complaint was that pharmacies in his jurisdiction in Tiswadi were not prescribing his company’s drugs. A representative of an ethical pharma company said he received complaints from doctors of bribes being offered. Pharmaceutical companies pressurize pharmacies to sell their drugs, even if a doctor prescribes another drug; which is precisely why you never seem to get the drug you were prescribed. Which is why, often what should be a quick visit to the family doctor turns into a merry-go-round if you dare insist on every letter of the word on your prescription.
‘Vitamin M’ is also administered by a certain hospital into the veins of your traffic cops and the 108 ambulance service, to ‘induce’ them to rush trauma patients to the hospital. Breaking the Hippocratic Oath in Calangute and the coastal tourist belt extends to bribing hotel staff and taxi drivers to become ‘inclined’ towards certain private clinics, especially one near Mapusa, and particularly dental clinics.
A friend who got an attack of gastritis in the night at a resort in Anjuna had to shell out Rs 800 as doctors’ fees. The irony was that the resort owner was a friend whose friend the doctor was! This particular doctor makes a killing (quite literally) by preying on foreign tourists at resorts!
Government in intensive care
Sent there by the mushrooming of private hospitals, the government sees to it that all the major hospicios, including the health centres, are virtually redundant. The common refrain of doctors is ‘we are short of drugs and consumables.’ The Corlim health centre, built in a remote part of the village, is as a result, barely accessible.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Cock and Bull stories
‘Pay parking is the need of the hour, since parking is free everybody brings four wheelers to the cities, mostly shopkeepers and businessmen, who park their vehicles for the whole day,’ said Arvind Gawas, SP to Herald. Let’s not even bother to dissect the absurdity of his argument, because a mere Rs 5 per hour isn’t going to convince car owners to pass up Panjim nor is the per hour rate going to deter traders who will simply pass it on to the unwitting consumer. But really, what Gawas needs to do expeditiously is to ban vehicles including mobile food vendors entering 18th June Road and instead convert it into a shoppers’ promenade (pedestrian only street) which has successfully been done the world over. I am sure our touring montris and babus have had the pleasure (courtesy your tax money of course) of seeing them on several occasions. In March this year shoppers and non-shoppers overwhelmingly voted in a survey to make Bangalore’s hugely popular Commercial Street a pedestrian zone. It’s not been done yet, but Bangalore is getting there. But for baloney, Gawas gets the month’s Emmy for outstanding gibberish beating the transport and river navigation minister’s rubbish on introducing a Ro-Ro ferry service between Agassaim and Cortalim on a build-operate basis. The other contender is this hair-brained idea of a link between Dona Paula and Mormugao port. This, like the Mopa airport, will never happen, but here’s a hint to the officials who went on a junket and returned awed by the Rs 1,600 cr Bandra-Worli sea link.
Saved! 20 minutes
Autocar recently tested the Sea Link and the traditional Mahim-Prabhadevi route in two Maruti Swifts. Their drivers took off from the domestic airport at 9.30 am sharp, joining the rush hour traffic heading to the Trident Hotel at Nariman Point. One Swift took the Sea Link and the other the Mahim-Prabhadevi route. The magazine’s verdict: the Sea Link proved to be longer and cost Rs 50 one way in toll, and it only saved 20 minutes in time. Not even India Inc starts board meetings on time. Mumbai, a metro bigger in size than Goa and with several times more vehicles than Goa’s population, might have decongested a fraction of its traffic congestion (In March 2007 it had 1,21,70,991 vehicles of which 85,73,679 were two wheelers, 7,00,356were trucks, 64,357 were buses, 1,33,309 were taxis 5,55,118 were autorickshaws.) But, what’s in it for Goa? Also, any Mumbaite will tell you that the Worli exit hits the sea face road at a right angle and is the only bottleneck in an otherwise smooth drive. Shift to Dona Paula which is already a bottleneck –that’s why I said hare-brained. Shift to Mormugao/Vasco where the almost the entire shore line belongs to the Mormugao Port Trust, Goa Shipyard and the Indian Navy … well, even more hare- brained. Aah yes, but then, our politicians do tend to rush off like the hare that nature bestowed very little brain power to.
Don’t rock the boat
As for the Ro-Ro idea, I foresee every industrial estate within miles and industry body protesting the idea for the simple reason that it will up transportation costs, leave alone the fact that there are several unknown entities like; river draft conditions, profitability break even per trip and whether a long vessel of this kind fits into the scheme of things.
Hares and hounds
The hares and hounds race, the game of chase in which one group of players, the hounds, follows a trail of scraps of paper left by another group, the hares, and tries to catch them before they reach a designated point. This is what it has been like chasing the hounds (those who waste our tax money) all these years. Or, do you feel like the hare sometimes, chasing the scraps thrown at you? Nuff said. Your montris (including Subodh Kantak, the government’s attorney general) spent Rs 1,35,778 between April and June 2009 living in hotels in New Delhi. But, what was Luizinho Faleiro, a non-montri, doing at Hotel Shangri la (expenditure: Rs 25,781) between June 8-10. Yeah, who cares? The austerity mantra is not for our montris. You can’t stop the juggernaut on wheels.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
‘Pay parking is the need of the hour, since parking is free everybody brings four wheelers to the cities, mostly shopkeepers and businessmen, who park their vehicles for the whole day,’ said Arvind Gawas, SP to Herald. Let’s not even bother to dissect the absurdity of his argument, because a mere Rs 5 per hour isn’t going to convince car owners to pass up Panjim nor is the per hour rate going to deter traders who will simply pass it on to the unwitting consumer. But really, what Gawas needs to do expeditiously is to ban vehicles including mobile food vendors entering 18th June Road and instead convert it into a shoppers’ promenade (pedestrian only street) which has successfully been done the world over. I am sure our touring montris and babus have had the pleasure (courtesy your tax money of course) of seeing them on several occasions. In March this year shoppers and non-shoppers overwhelmingly voted in a survey to make Bangalore’s hugely popular Commercial Street a pedestrian zone. It’s not been done yet, but Bangalore is getting there. But for baloney, Gawas gets the month’s Emmy for outstanding gibberish beating the transport and river navigation minister’s rubbish on introducing a Ro-Ro ferry service between Agassaim and Cortalim on a build-operate basis. The other contender is this hair-brained idea of a link between Dona Paula and Mormugao port. This, like the Mopa airport, will never happen, but here’s a hint to the officials who went on a junket and returned awed by the Rs 1,600 cr Bandra-Worli sea link.
Saved! 20 minutes
Autocar recently tested the Sea Link and the traditional Mahim-Prabhadevi route in two Maruti Swifts. Their drivers took off from the domestic airport at 9.30 am sharp, joining the rush hour traffic heading to the Trident Hotel at Nariman Point. One Swift took the Sea Link and the other the Mahim-Prabhadevi route. The magazine’s verdict: the Sea Link proved to be longer and cost Rs 50 one way in toll, and it only saved 20 minutes in time. Not even India Inc starts board meetings on time. Mumbai, a metro bigger in size than Goa and with several times more vehicles than Goa’s population, might have decongested a fraction of its traffic congestion (In March 2007 it had 1,21,70,991 vehicles of which 85,73,679 were two wheelers, 7,00,356were trucks, 64,357 were buses, 1,33,309 were taxis 5,55,118 were autorickshaws.) But, what’s in it for Goa? Also, any Mumbaite will tell you that the Worli exit hits the sea face road at a right angle and is the only bottleneck in an otherwise smooth drive. Shift to Dona Paula which is already a bottleneck –that’s why I said hare-brained. Shift to Mormugao/Vasco where the almost the entire shore line belongs to the Mormugao Port Trust, Goa Shipyard and the Indian Navy … well, even more hare- brained. Aah yes, but then, our politicians do tend to rush off like the hare that nature bestowed very little brain power to.
Don’t rock the boat
As for the Ro-Ro idea, I foresee every industrial estate within miles and industry body protesting the idea for the simple reason that it will up transportation costs, leave alone the fact that there are several unknown entities like; river draft conditions, profitability break even per trip and whether a long vessel of this kind fits into the scheme of things.
Hares and hounds
The hares and hounds race, the game of chase in which one group of players, the hounds, follows a trail of scraps of paper left by another group, the hares, and tries to catch them before they reach a designated point. This is what it has been like chasing the hounds (those who waste our tax money) all these years. Or, do you feel like the hare sometimes, chasing the scraps thrown at you? Nuff said. Your montris (including Subodh Kantak, the government’s attorney general) spent Rs 1,35,778 between April and June 2009 living in hotels in New Delhi. But, what was Luizinho Faleiro, a non-montri, doing at Hotel Shangri la (expenditure: Rs 25,781) between June 8-10. Yeah, who cares? The austerity mantra is not for our montris. You can’t stop the juggernaut on wheels.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Friday, October 16, 2009
Walk the talk
Last Friday morning, they had to be the most resilient lot in Goa, because you can’t be more hardy than the Friday Mapusa market vendors, who, braving the punishing, pouring rain, covered their wares, and waited, glumly for the more foolhardy buyer like me to come wading along. Even the woman selling rock salt was there, so were some of the plant sellers, who perhaps lost more plants to the flooding waters, than they sold. Truly, it was a wretched Friday, and made me want to call up the editors of magazines who have serially voted Goa as the best and most trendy place to be in. My point, you ask? Our montris need to walk along this path too, literally. They live in glass houses, pretending to be concerned about people’s welfare, and waiting to pounce like vipers on opportunities that come their way. And, it’s not always about making money. It is also about the opportunity to stay in power for another term. Like the issue Mr. Atanasio Monserrate a.k.a ‘Babush’ picked, that is, he said the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat could reoccupy its home in Dona Paula if the ‘B’ Company boys at the Taleigao panchayat were to get a one-time ‘compensation’ of Rs 2 crore; and all the house tax accrued from the parked be parked in the panchayat. So, screw the sentiments of the people of Taleigao (the rest of Goa included) who fought hard to stop, what can accurately be called a hoax of ‘concrete’ proportions, if you get my drift. What next Mr. Monserrate? Tax Goans for setting their eyes on what is left of the tambdi bhaji fields before they join the rest of the concrete jungle that was once beautiful Caranzalem?
But, not this way
Remember all the tax money spent to perk up the already stately homes of our montris, Dayanand Narvekar included, despite the fact he was struck of the privileged list, albeit temporarily. Here’s more on our nawabs and their princely perks, which brings me to a point I should have made a long time ago in this column. Pandurang Madkaikar, the Prince of Cumburjua, is the only one I know who when in power, hasn’t been lavish with your tax money. And, that’s saying a lot these days. This week it’s the turn of Ramkrishna Dhavlikar, who spent just Rs 28,924.65 of your tax money perking up his official bungalow. Dhavlikar, among one half of the Band of Brothers) is the man with the thing for vanishing high security number plates that cost a bomb, and I still wonder why you protest so much. Never mind the cost dumbo, your registration plate car just turned stealth with his help. The Indian Navy has stealth warships, and you have a stealth car now that evades police radar. Go get it. You won’t regret it.
Mr. Ravi Naik, the home minister, spent Rs 1,44,399.13 to do up his official bungalow and it went like this. Rs 7,900 on a steel cupboard, Rs 23,000 on a washing machine. For the rest, read on.
Movers and packers
Apparently spartan in the luxury area, Mr. Naik however showed a huge preference for handy items and splurged your tax money on exactly 86 categories of items. And, I make this point again. What the heck happened to all replaced items? I mean who takes away old refrigerators, washing machines and cooking stoves every time new ones are bought? And then, Mr. Naik decides to change residence. So, what does he do? He simply goes shopping again. Remember, the man who strangely as home minister licensed all the floating casinos on the Mandovi, had earlier spent Rs 5,25,185 of your tax bucks to paint another bungalow where he also installed a FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) cabin costing Rs 1,07,342, but then shifted residence on October 21, 2007 to the bungalow called ‘Herambh’.
Unhealthy trend
This Tuesday, health minister Vishwajeet Rane came calling to Divar after the islanders demanded a public health centre. And were they surprised! Not by his visit silly, but by his insistence that Divar must provide suitable accomodation for the centre and its staff. So, the islanders are asking (in private of course) ‘why do we need you then. And, isn’t? your government the expert on acquiring huge land at the drop of a hat even if it is to build stadiums that none will use eventually?’ As they say, GOOD QUESTION.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Last Friday morning, they had to be the most resilient lot in Goa, because you can’t be more hardy than the Friday Mapusa market vendors, who, braving the punishing, pouring rain, covered their wares, and waited, glumly for the more foolhardy buyer like me to come wading along. Even the woman selling rock salt was there, so were some of the plant sellers, who perhaps lost more plants to the flooding waters, than they sold. Truly, it was a wretched Friday, and made me want to call up the editors of magazines who have serially voted Goa as the best and most trendy place to be in. My point, you ask? Our montris need to walk along this path too, literally. They live in glass houses, pretending to be concerned about people’s welfare, and waiting to pounce like vipers on opportunities that come their way. And, it’s not always about making money. It is also about the opportunity to stay in power for another term. Like the issue Mr. Atanasio Monserrate a.k.a ‘Babush’ picked, that is, he said the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat could reoccupy its home in Dona Paula if the ‘B’ Company boys at the Taleigao panchayat were to get a one-time ‘compensation’ of Rs 2 crore; and all the house tax accrued from the parked be parked in the panchayat. So, screw the sentiments of the people of Taleigao (the rest of Goa included) who fought hard to stop, what can accurately be called a hoax of ‘concrete’ proportions, if you get my drift. What next Mr. Monserrate? Tax Goans for setting their eyes on what is left of the tambdi bhaji fields before they join the rest of the concrete jungle that was once beautiful Caranzalem?
But, not this way
Remember all the tax money spent to perk up the already stately homes of our montris, Dayanand Narvekar included, despite the fact he was struck of the privileged list, albeit temporarily. Here’s more on our nawabs and their princely perks, which brings me to a point I should have made a long time ago in this column. Pandurang Madkaikar, the Prince of Cumburjua, is the only one I know who when in power, hasn’t been lavish with your tax money. And, that’s saying a lot these days. This week it’s the turn of Ramkrishna Dhavlikar, who spent just Rs 28,924.65 of your tax money perking up his official bungalow. Dhavlikar, among one half of the Band of Brothers) is the man with the thing for vanishing high security number plates that cost a bomb, and I still wonder why you protest so much. Never mind the cost dumbo, your registration plate car just turned stealth with his help. The Indian Navy has stealth warships, and you have a stealth car now that evades police radar. Go get it. You won’t regret it.
Mr. Ravi Naik, the home minister, spent Rs 1,44,399.13 to do up his official bungalow and it went like this. Rs 7,900 on a steel cupboard, Rs 23,000 on a washing machine. For the rest, read on.
Movers and packers
Apparently spartan in the luxury area, Mr. Naik however showed a huge preference for handy items and splurged your tax money on exactly 86 categories of items. And, I make this point again. What the heck happened to all replaced items? I mean who takes away old refrigerators, washing machines and cooking stoves every time new ones are bought? And then, Mr. Naik decides to change residence. So, what does he do? He simply goes shopping again. Remember, the man who strangely as home minister licensed all the floating casinos on the Mandovi, had earlier spent Rs 5,25,185 of your tax bucks to paint another bungalow where he also installed a FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) cabin costing Rs 1,07,342, but then shifted residence on October 21, 2007 to the bungalow called ‘Herambh’.
Unhealthy trend
This Tuesday, health minister Vishwajeet Rane came calling to Divar after the islanders demanded a public health centre. And were they surprised! Not by his visit silly, but by his insistence that Divar must provide suitable accomodation for the centre and its staff. So, the islanders are asking (in private of course) ‘why do we need you then. And, isn’t? your government the expert on acquiring huge land at the drop of a hat even if it is to build stadiums that none will use eventually?’ As they say, GOOD QUESTION.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
The real thing
I was traveling last week to Pondichery and as a result had to miss out, albeit temporarily, on how your montris think your tax money collection is their personal ‘piggy bank’. Fortunately for me and writing this column, it matters little where in India you are, to be reminded about the misfortune we endure having our 42 elected peoples’ representatives working for us. More exactly, when you are in Chennai, where for instance, you can feel how Information Technology was made to work for the people. Whereas, in Goa it took a single MLA to make IT work for him, and for his pockets only. I am talking about the Rajiv Gandhi IT Park in posh Dona Paula where real estate sharks were encouraged to park themselves.
Two more universities in Tamil Nadu, I read in the newspapers, are working micro-satellites for a possible launch by end-2009. I am told they were encouraged by ANUSAT, India’s first ever micro satellite built by Anna University, Chennai, and launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) last April from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. The project’s team operated from the College of Engineering, Guindy and MIT, Chromepet, both in Chennai. Contrast this with the miserable performance of our own engineering colleges and the government’s attempt not too long ago to acquire land belonging to the Goa University, and no guesses on whom this high value land would have been sold to for mere peanuts.
Besides this, a group of students from engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad is working on an 850 gm pico satellite under ISRO guidance. Bottomline: Whereas, IT in Goa means real estate in the three southern States it means inventing the more difficult-to-make micro satellites which requires miniature technology. Just to make you squirm a bit more, do be informed that I booked my Volvo AC BUS travel to Pondicherry from Chennai online, which meant I had to make only a single trip to the bus station (to actually catch the bus). Compare this to the rumbunctious behaviour of the touts operating at Patto in Panjim, or KTC’s sleepy counters in Margao and Panjim. Or, be really crushed by this September 19 headline “First heart transplant at GH”. The story was about the Chennai Government General Hospital’s first ever heart transplant! In Goa, the last eye-catching headlines (from GMC) were about dirty linen and falling ceiling fans. I’ll say we have a long way to go, baby!
The other man’s grass is always green
But this is not to say everything is hunky dory outside. In fact, as in Goa, so too in Pondicherry (btw, official name is Puducherry), it’s a foreign takeover when it comes to business. And therefore, for instance, tourism in Pondy has made even its juice and bread cost an arm and a leg and the perpetrators of this fraud are some locals but mostly foreigners who run cafes, restaurants and are even real estate agents. I ran into this helpful young American girl who has moved to Pondy some months ago and runs a diner in rue Labordanais, serving breakfast and juice. After tramping around the Latin Quarter of Pondy – which, incidentally, is mostly clean but for some piles of garbage in certain streets – I was thirsty and parked myself in her diner and ordered a mango juice. Visions of a thirst-quenching fresh fruit juice filled my mind but imagine my shock when she returned in a jiffy with a glass of tinned mango juice!! I was awed – outraged is more like it – when she charged me Rs 60. The con job was repeated on another thirsty idiot – Rs 60 for a glass of orange juice that came from a tetrapack, the kind you see crammed in super-market shelves. Was she charging for the “ambience” which basically consisted of some easy chairs, some ethnic cushions against a glass frontage from where you could see the world go by? Or did she perchance think dollar rates were okay considering most of her clients are foreigners?
Talk of hype…
Then there is Satsangha, which is on the map of any tourist brochure on Pondy. As you walk in, there is a menu (which is fairly common like restaurants in France) with a picture of the French chef). First of, with all that tall grass hiding hordes of mosquitoes, I spent the evening scratching or slapping at my legs and arms to deal with these winged insects which carry all kinds of diseases. Second, I ordered pasta and got spaghetti. Did the French owner (who was not there) think I, an Indian, would not know the difference? Or did his Indian chef – who was supposed to show up at my table and do some PR but did not come (come on, that was not a tall order considering only two tables were occupied) – did not know the difference? Anyway, again a whopping bill for a fraud.
While India has no angels in the real estate industry – how many times have you encountered a sleazy broker in the booming real estate market in Goa? –the ones I met in Pondy took the cake. Firstly, it’s a segment cornered by some foreign women who obviously are high maintenance. So while you are used to brokers charging two per cent as a commission, in Pondy, one of them told me she charged a jaw-dropping 15 per cent! So, the poor sods who go to them looking for a long stay apartment fork out commissions that obviously pay for these women’s lifestyles.
Poetic Justice
But having said this, I must say I was floored by a bakery (they call it boulangerie in French) on the road to Auroville which had an array of mouth-watering confections for prices that can be called a steal. A big piece of pizza came for just Rs 31(yes, it’s true or c’est vrai as the French would say) and – hold your breath – true blue brown bread for just Rs 18. The irony is that a bakery in town called Baker Street (which is highly recommended in all tourist brochures) sold brown bread for Rs 90. Even a Frenchman was startled when he handed over a C note and got just Rs 10 back. Incidentally this bakery is run by a local. Talk of poetic justice!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
I was traveling last week to Pondichery and as a result had to miss out, albeit temporarily, on how your montris think your tax money collection is their personal ‘piggy bank’. Fortunately for me and writing this column, it matters little where in India you are, to be reminded about the misfortune we endure having our 42 elected peoples’ representatives working for us. More exactly, when you are in Chennai, where for instance, you can feel how Information Technology was made to work for the people. Whereas, in Goa it took a single MLA to make IT work for him, and for his pockets only. I am talking about the Rajiv Gandhi IT Park in posh Dona Paula where real estate sharks were encouraged to park themselves.
Two more universities in Tamil Nadu, I read in the newspapers, are working micro-satellites for a possible launch by end-2009. I am told they were encouraged by ANUSAT, India’s first ever micro satellite built by Anna University, Chennai, and launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) last April from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. The project’s team operated from the College of Engineering, Guindy and MIT, Chromepet, both in Chennai. Contrast this with the miserable performance of our own engineering colleges and the government’s attempt not too long ago to acquire land belonging to the Goa University, and no guesses on whom this high value land would have been sold to for mere peanuts.
Besides this, a group of students from engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad is working on an 850 gm pico satellite under ISRO guidance. Bottomline: Whereas, IT in Goa means real estate in the three southern States it means inventing the more difficult-to-make micro satellites which requires miniature technology. Just to make you squirm a bit more, do be informed that I booked my Volvo AC BUS travel to Pondicherry from Chennai online, which meant I had to make only a single trip to the bus station (to actually catch the bus). Compare this to the rumbunctious behaviour of the touts operating at Patto in Panjim, or KTC’s sleepy counters in Margao and Panjim. Or, be really crushed by this September 19 headline “First heart transplant at GH”. The story was about the Chennai Government General Hospital’s first ever heart transplant! In Goa, the last eye-catching headlines (from GMC) were about dirty linen and falling ceiling fans. I’ll say we have a long way to go, baby!
The other man’s grass is always green
But this is not to say everything is hunky dory outside. In fact, as in Goa, so too in Pondicherry (btw, official name is Puducherry), it’s a foreign takeover when it comes to business. And therefore, for instance, tourism in Pondy has made even its juice and bread cost an arm and a leg and the perpetrators of this fraud are some locals but mostly foreigners who run cafes, restaurants and are even real estate agents. I ran into this helpful young American girl who has moved to Pondy some months ago and runs a diner in rue Labordanais, serving breakfast and juice. After tramping around the Latin Quarter of Pondy – which, incidentally, is mostly clean but for some piles of garbage in certain streets – I was thirsty and parked myself in her diner and ordered a mango juice. Visions of a thirst-quenching fresh fruit juice filled my mind but imagine my shock when she returned in a jiffy with a glass of tinned mango juice!! I was awed – outraged is more like it – when she charged me Rs 60. The con job was repeated on another thirsty idiot – Rs 60 for a glass of orange juice that came from a tetrapack, the kind you see crammed in super-market shelves. Was she charging for the “ambience” which basically consisted of some easy chairs, some ethnic cushions against a glass frontage from where you could see the world go by? Or did she perchance think dollar rates were okay considering most of her clients are foreigners?
Talk of hype…
Then there is Satsangha, which is on the map of any tourist brochure on Pondy. As you walk in, there is a menu (which is fairly common like restaurants in France) with a picture of the French chef). First of, with all that tall grass hiding hordes of mosquitoes, I spent the evening scratching or slapping at my legs and arms to deal with these winged insects which carry all kinds of diseases. Second, I ordered pasta and got spaghetti. Did the French owner (who was not there) think I, an Indian, would not know the difference? Or did his Indian chef – who was supposed to show up at my table and do some PR but did not come (come on, that was not a tall order considering only two tables were occupied) – did not know the difference? Anyway, again a whopping bill for a fraud.
While India has no angels in the real estate industry – how many times have you encountered a sleazy broker in the booming real estate market in Goa? –the ones I met in Pondy took the cake. Firstly, it’s a segment cornered by some foreign women who obviously are high maintenance. So while you are used to brokers charging two per cent as a commission, in Pondy, one of them told me she charged a jaw-dropping 15 per cent! So, the poor sods who go to them looking for a long stay apartment fork out commissions that obviously pay for these women’s lifestyles.
Poetic Justice
But having said this, I must say I was floored by a bakery (they call it boulangerie in French) on the road to Auroville which had an array of mouth-watering confections for prices that can be called a steal. A big piece of pizza came for just Rs 31(yes, it’s true or c’est vrai as the French would say) and – hold your breath – true blue brown bread for just Rs 18. The irony is that a bakery in town called Baker Street (which is highly recommended in all tourist brochures) sold brown bread for Rs 90. Even a Frenchman was startled when he handed over a C note and got just Rs 10 back. Incidentally this bakery is run by a local. Talk of poetic justice!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Privy purse
Third dimensional
At least someone wrote in to say she was in agreement with what I said last week … that a good many anti-building activists raising a ruckus are those who own small plots of land but with their homes already built. The lady from Orlim however wrote in adding a third dimension. She says ‘many activists are ex-Mumbaites who have benefited from the builders lobby by selling their small flats for exorbitant prices and are now returning to their motherland to make trouble for their humbler cousins who have been busy toiling to keep their homes going.’ My, my, this truly enhances the quality of the street level activist. Talk of double standards. She goes on to say: ‘In our village too activists only tried to sabotage the regional plan committees’ work and gained popularity with endless articles in the press which was ever obliging and never bothered with facts.” Amen to that.
What’s it going to take?
What will it take for us drivers to get the Ribandar stretch of the road to Panjim, repaired? The islanders of Divar have put up with the pathetic state of the roads on the island for years. While the island’s arterial roads were tarred some months ago, the stretch from Bainginium got from bad to worse. And at Ribandar the less said about the state of the road, the better. At nights, a herd of cattle parked opposite the Sao Pedro chapel confront drivers with an altogether different nightmare. So, what’s it going to take? Bigger vehicle maintenance bills, or some biker killing himself by colliding with the cattle?
Privy purse?
It’s got to be that or, they are the ‘chosen ones’. ‘Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people’ (Exodus 19:5-6). What more can one say of our montris. The week before last I wrote that Rs 18,13,926 of your, by now very expendable, tax money was spent renovating the official residence of Digambar Kamat between June 8, 2007 and now. To do up the official residence of the Home Minister, Ravi Naik, Rs 5,25,185 was spent. It went like this: Rs 4,17,843 went to paint the bungalow; add some repair costs to that. Installing an FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) cabin cost Rs 1,07,342. Now, why on earth do you think he would need that? As a swine flu shelter, you think? Rs 2,49,202 was spent to paint the bungalow (F-0-1) of the Health Minister, Vishwajeet Rane. Chosen ones? Indeed. In actual fact, Naik ordered the bungalow to be painted internally and externally but then shifted residence on October 21, 2007 to the bungalow called ‘Herambh’.
The Color of Money
That was the motion picture about a young pool hustler learning the tricks of the trade from an old pro, based on the novel by Walter Tevis. Paul Newman earned an Academy Award for his performance as the aging pool shark Eddie in this film, which was released in 1986. Where’s the connection? That’s not hard to figure out, but for the moment let’s say this is how you get hustled out of your tax money. Rs 1,03,779 was spent to paint (externally only) and to carry out ‘urgent repairs’ to F-0-2, the official bungalow of the Public Works Department Minister, Churchill Alemao. Rs 9,36,450 was incurred to carry out ‘various repairs’. Replacing a chandelier and a wall fitting in the hall cost Rs 24,817. A horizontal (!) water heater cost Rs 19,690. Rs 30,650 was spent to fit an air conditioner in a ‘separately constructed room’ in the (his) chamber at the Government Secretariat at Porvorim. That amounts to a whopping Rs 1,11,5,386.
Gory details
Now, this is the really, really frustrating part. Rs 4,97,292 of your tax bucks was spent to buy precisely 82 items for the official bungalow of Digambar Kamat. But what boggles the mind, are items like the two TVs (Rs 19,000+Rs 90,000) a refrigerator, folding ladder, and several wall clocks. So, who took away the earlier ones then? What happened to the original curtains also, because new curtains were bought for Rs 1,32,231. And, for crying out loud, why buy four wall paintings for Rs 76,000. I can understand our montris not wanting to use their predecessor’s towels and linen, but it does seem strange when you have to replace every single conceivable kitchenware, cookware, crockery and cutlery or, do they want to start with a clean slate, so to speak. Because, when you need a rice strainer (Rs 360), it does prove they start from the beginning. All one can is when someone else is being suckered, our montris become fastidious!
All this reminds me of the furore in Dilli over External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor staying in five-star hotels for the last three months. They both defended themselves saying they were picking up the tab. But even if one overlooks Shashi Tharoor (he did declare assets of nearly Rs 30 crores as a candidate from Thiruvanathapuram) and chalk it down to his earnings from his career as a diplomat with the UN and from his books, what was Krishna’s source of income considering he has been a career politician? To think he could afford Rs one lakh per day on the presidential suite at Hotel Ashoka for the last three months!! Am I giving our montris ideas? God forbid!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
At least someone wrote in to say she was in agreement with what I said last week … that a good many anti-building activists raising a ruckus are those who own small plots of land but with their homes already built. The lady from Orlim however wrote in adding a third dimension. She says ‘many activists are ex-Mumbaites who have benefited from the builders lobby by selling their small flats for exorbitant prices and are now returning to their motherland to make trouble for their humbler cousins who have been busy toiling to keep their homes going.’ My, my, this truly enhances the quality of the street level activist. Talk of double standards. She goes on to say: ‘In our village too activists only tried to sabotage the regional plan committees’ work and gained popularity with endless articles in the press which was ever obliging and never bothered with facts.” Amen to that.
What’s it going to take?
What will it take for us drivers to get the Ribandar stretch of the road to Panjim, repaired? The islanders of Divar have put up with the pathetic state of the roads on the island for years. While the island’s arterial roads were tarred some months ago, the stretch from Bainginium got from bad to worse. And at Ribandar the less said about the state of the road, the better. At nights, a herd of cattle parked opposite the Sao Pedro chapel confront drivers with an altogether different nightmare. So, what’s it going to take? Bigger vehicle maintenance bills, or some biker killing himself by colliding with the cattle?
Privy purse?
It’s got to be that or, they are the ‘chosen ones’. ‘Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people’ (Exodus 19:5-6). What more can one say of our montris. The week before last I wrote that Rs 18,13,926 of your, by now very expendable, tax money was spent renovating the official residence of Digambar Kamat between June 8, 2007 and now. To do up the official residence of the Home Minister, Ravi Naik, Rs 5,25,185 was spent. It went like this: Rs 4,17,843 went to paint the bungalow; add some repair costs to that. Installing an FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) cabin cost Rs 1,07,342. Now, why on earth do you think he would need that? As a swine flu shelter, you think? Rs 2,49,202 was spent to paint the bungalow (F-0-1) of the Health Minister, Vishwajeet Rane. Chosen ones? Indeed. In actual fact, Naik ordered the bungalow to be painted internally and externally but then shifted residence on October 21, 2007 to the bungalow called ‘Herambh’.
The Color of Money
That was the motion picture about a young pool hustler learning the tricks of the trade from an old pro, based on the novel by Walter Tevis. Paul Newman earned an Academy Award for his performance as the aging pool shark Eddie in this film, which was released in 1986. Where’s the connection? That’s not hard to figure out, but for the moment let’s say this is how you get hustled out of your tax money. Rs 1,03,779 was spent to paint (externally only) and to carry out ‘urgent repairs’ to F-0-2, the official bungalow of the Public Works Department Minister, Churchill Alemao. Rs 9,36,450 was incurred to carry out ‘various repairs’. Replacing a chandelier and a wall fitting in the hall cost Rs 24,817. A horizontal (!) water heater cost Rs 19,690. Rs 30,650 was spent to fit an air conditioner in a ‘separately constructed room’ in the (his) chamber at the Government Secretariat at Porvorim. That amounts to a whopping Rs 1,11,5,386.
Gory details
Now, this is the really, really frustrating part. Rs 4,97,292 of your tax bucks was spent to buy precisely 82 items for the official bungalow of Digambar Kamat. But what boggles the mind, are items like the two TVs (Rs 19,000+Rs 90,000) a refrigerator, folding ladder, and several wall clocks. So, who took away the earlier ones then? What happened to the original curtains also, because new curtains were bought for Rs 1,32,231. And, for crying out loud, why buy four wall paintings for Rs 76,000. I can understand our montris not wanting to use their predecessor’s towels and linen, but it does seem strange when you have to replace every single conceivable kitchenware, cookware, crockery and cutlery or, do they want to start with a clean slate, so to speak. Because, when you need a rice strainer (Rs 360), it does prove they start from the beginning. All one can is when someone else is being suckered, our montris become fastidious!
All this reminds me of the furore in Dilli over External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor staying in five-star hotels for the last three months. They both defended themselves saying they were picking up the tab. But even if one overlooks Shashi Tharoor (he did declare assets of nearly Rs 30 crores as a candidate from Thiruvanathapuram) and chalk it down to his earnings from his career as a diplomat with the UN and from his books, what was Krishna’s source of income considering he has been a career politician? To think he could afford Rs one lakh per day on the presidential suite at Hotel Ashoka for the last three months!! Am I giving our montris ideas? God forbid!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Sound and fury
Finger pointing
If you have been reading the Herald, you would have read of the allegations, finger pointing etcetera etcetera leveled by Sheila Gracias and Dr. Marconi Correia at the Cansaulim-Arrosim-Cuelim-Village Panchayat Gram Sabha meeting on August 16, and at a few more gatherings before this meeting. Is there a connection here and a happening trend? It’s possible, because people have been telling me that a good percentage of villagers who are raising a hue and cry are those who do not own properties (apart from their small homes) and also, sadly bhatkars. Foot loose and fancy free now and very rich too having sold huge properties, they hang out with villagers pretending to be activists. And please, there is absolutely no inference here to anyone in these three villages. But it’s happening, and the Varca taxi drivers would be my ‘Exhibit A’ submission in a debate on this.
The other side
And as a coin has two sides, this one does too. And this is the version of Blanche Pereira, the Sarpanch, who says that at an extraordinary meeting of the Gram Sabha on April 11, to discuss the Regional Plan (RP) 2021, attended by 81 members; she asked them if they wanted to reserve parts of the land as open spaces for the village of Cansaulim. According to her, none voiced their opinion and two resolutions to this effect were passed (no. 13 and 14). According to her, Mathany Saldanha and Marconi Correia were present.
In fact according to Blanche Pereira, this meeting was specifically held because at an earlier Gram Sabha on March 29, 2009, Sheila Gracias had alleged that the meeting was futile since in the kit, the 2001 map concerning the RP was not provided. According to the Sarpanch, kits were officially provided to the VP as early as December 2008 and were available for public scrutiny.
In addition, she says, coloured maps were printed and distributed to the ward committee members. Also, the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department had invited a list of architects on a voluntary basis and the VP body chose Nilesh Salkar of Vasco da Gama, who suggested that the ward committees make their plans and submit them to the TCP in Panjim. According to Blanche, Sheila Gracias had, on the contrary, suggested the name of another architect, Carlos Gracias. He with the other ward committee members went to the wards (according to Blanche Pereira, not all the wards) and identified only the sand dunes, ponds, and lakes. They did not survey the Cansaulim and Arossim beach roads, the existing village roads, and the main district road to the village, the Cansaulim railway station, government schools, and hospitals, which as a result were omitted in the ward plans.
What orchard zone?
On the day of the special Gram Sabha on April 11, she says, the committee members submitted their ward-wise plans duly signed to the VP in the presence of a town planner from Vasco. “There was no discussion on the plans that were submitted. However, Sheila Gracias stood up and said that the beach area should be declared an orchard zone. In reality, the notion of an orchard zone is against the land use laws as recommended by the Centre for land between the 200 m and 500 m High Tide Line. A panch, Ferwin Saldanha then asked everyone present if they wanted to keep their properties as open spaces under the orchard zone which meant no development would be allowed. No one responded. ”
Blanche says that after incorporating the ward level plans into the main plan she invited Carlos Gracias to quote the resolution that said there must be an orchard zone. He could not, and refused to sign the maps. “The resolution of the meeting was approved by all the members present and therefore, accusing me now of not reserving an orchard zone, is baseless. All the plans can be obtained from the TCP under the RTI, if anybody wants to verify what I have said.” She says also that during scrutiny of the combined map by Carlos Gracias, villagers, including all the panchas, gave in writing their objections to the orchard zone.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
If you have been reading the Herald, you would have read of the allegations, finger pointing etcetera etcetera leveled by Sheila Gracias and Dr. Marconi Correia at the Cansaulim-Arrosim-Cuelim-Village Panchayat Gram Sabha meeting on August 16, and at a few more gatherings before this meeting. Is there a connection here and a happening trend? It’s possible, because people have been telling me that a good percentage of villagers who are raising a hue and cry are those who do not own properties (apart from their small homes) and also, sadly bhatkars. Foot loose and fancy free now and very rich too having sold huge properties, they hang out with villagers pretending to be activists. And please, there is absolutely no inference here to anyone in these three villages. But it’s happening, and the Varca taxi drivers would be my ‘Exhibit A’ submission in a debate on this.
The other side
And as a coin has two sides, this one does too. And this is the version of Blanche Pereira, the Sarpanch, who says that at an extraordinary meeting of the Gram Sabha on April 11, to discuss the Regional Plan (RP) 2021, attended by 81 members; she asked them if they wanted to reserve parts of the land as open spaces for the village of Cansaulim. According to her, none voiced their opinion and two resolutions to this effect were passed (no. 13 and 14). According to her, Mathany Saldanha and Marconi Correia were present.
In fact according to Blanche Pereira, this meeting was specifically held because at an earlier Gram Sabha on March 29, 2009, Sheila Gracias had alleged that the meeting was futile since in the kit, the 2001 map concerning the RP was not provided. According to the Sarpanch, kits were officially provided to the VP as early as December 2008 and were available for public scrutiny.
In addition, she says, coloured maps were printed and distributed to the ward committee members. Also, the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department had invited a list of architects on a voluntary basis and the VP body chose Nilesh Salkar of Vasco da Gama, who suggested that the ward committees make their plans and submit them to the TCP in Panjim. According to Blanche, Sheila Gracias had, on the contrary, suggested the name of another architect, Carlos Gracias. He with the other ward committee members went to the wards (according to Blanche Pereira, not all the wards) and identified only the sand dunes, ponds, and lakes. They did not survey the Cansaulim and Arossim beach roads, the existing village roads, and the main district road to the village, the Cansaulim railway station, government schools, and hospitals, which as a result were omitted in the ward plans.
What orchard zone?
On the day of the special Gram Sabha on April 11, she says, the committee members submitted their ward-wise plans duly signed to the VP in the presence of a town planner from Vasco. “There was no discussion on the plans that were submitted. However, Sheila Gracias stood up and said that the beach area should be declared an orchard zone. In reality, the notion of an orchard zone is against the land use laws as recommended by the Centre for land between the 200 m and 500 m High Tide Line. A panch, Ferwin Saldanha then asked everyone present if they wanted to keep their properties as open spaces under the orchard zone which meant no development would be allowed. No one responded. ”
Blanche says that after incorporating the ward level plans into the main plan she invited Carlos Gracias to quote the resolution that said there must be an orchard zone. He could not, and refused to sign the maps. “The resolution of the meeting was approved by all the members present and therefore, accusing me now of not reserving an orchard zone, is baseless. All the plans can be obtained from the TCP under the RTI, if anybody wants to verify what I have said.” She says also that during scrutiny of the combined map by Carlos Gracias, villagers, including all the panchas, gave in writing their objections to the orchard zone.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Talk of being helpful
Faleiro’s ‘One small step for Goa, one giant leap for Goans’
Jai Ho Taiwan! Eduardo Faleiro, Commissioner for NRI Affairs, could be off to Taiwan in October on the off chance, he said so himself, he might bump into some Goans there. Good luck to him. To the best of my knowledge there are two Goans in Tokyo, one of them I know, and is married to a Japanese lady. There’s opportunity there, Boss. Ditto for the Cayman Islands, where I have just discovered there are a bunch of Goans. And as for Goans in Kenya, there are just 2,000 of them according to my sources there. Since they are all Kenyan citizens, I really don’t see how the Indian embassy in Nairobi could be of use to them except to create further obstacles, if for some vague reason it were asked to help. When I travelled to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 2001, I was informed there that are only four Goan families left in Kisumu, a town on the shores of Lake Victoria on the Kenyan side. In Unguja, the main island of Zanzibar, I could trace and meet one Goan who had a travel agency there. The rest had all migrated. Now, my sources tell me there are barely 1,000 Goans in Tanzania and 200 in Uganda.
These Goans abroad do not need to be reminded about their Goan roots, simply because they will never forget. Their endless supply of Goan sausages, masalas and feni is testimony to their nostalgia for Goa and everything Goan. As for Goans living in Canada and the U.S. for that matter, the cost of a flight to Goa is simply daunting, and so most Goans there prefer to travel to the U.K. and Europe where they have a network of Goans. It’s simply a question of logistics and cost effectiveness. In fact if you are a regular reader of herald2day, you will have noticed that Goan themed restaurants or restaurants serving Goan food are only opened in the U.S. I can’t recall a Goan restaurant being opened in the U.K. I guess for all the obvious reasons.
Another time, another place
I recall writing a special report for Mumbai’s Mid-Day during Kuwait’s invasion by Iraq between August 1990 and January 1991 and to my surprise every Goan returnee I interviewed had a horror tale to tell of the sheer insensitivity of Indian embassies to all Indians wherever their help was sought.
Faleiro went there too, at least he stationed himself in a neighbouring country (I can’t remember which), to help. Apparently, his presence did not help one bit. Faleiro was there as a representative of Rajiv Gandhi’s opposition Congress (VP Singh was the Prime Minister at the time) and along with the then Foreign Minister Inder Kumar Gujral even met Iraq’s President Saddam Hussain. In an interview later, Faleiro was quoted as saying, “I must say I was given special treatment in meeting President Hussein. I suppose this was because his Baath Party had fraternal relations with the Congress.” But, sadly, accounts of fleeing Goans indicated they were not given special treatment.
Wasted Effort
My point is Indian embassies are as a rule uncooperative and not accommodating. And for this, I can vouch. When I lost my passport in Bejing in August 2007, I discovered to my everlasting disappointment that the Chinese police, authorities and my travel guide were overeager to help, but not the Indian embassy, then headed by Nirupama Rao, now India’s foreign secretary. The attitude I encountered was typically desi, every Indian at the embassy felt (and showed it) they were doing me a huge favour in issuing me a duplicate passport. In contrast a female Chinese police officer spent more time trying to explain to me the procedures in China, the job that should have been done by someone in the embassy. Fed up, I called up every senior journalist friend I knew in Delhi. Hey presto, it finally worked, and my passport was ready, but not before the laminating machine was purposely made to malfunction because my calling up ‘friends’ made me the most hated Indian in Beijing. In fact, when I went across to say thank you, one graceless official said –“Whatever.”
Adding to taxpayer's burden
If our montris are not going on their version of the Starship Enterprise missions abroad to sell Goa’s tourism industry or to save Goans abroad, they are preoccupied doing up their homes. Between June 8, 2007 and now, Rs 4,85,338 was spent on various repairs to the official home of Digambar Kamat, who apart from flying economy, would have you believe that he goes home to Margao for rest and recreation. But during that time Rs 5,40,612.63 was also spent painting up his Altinho residence. I don’t know who sits on his chairs, can’t be Churchill Alemao –he’s too busy doing his own thing like kickboxing; but Rs 7,75,973 was spent on ‘urgent’ repairs to the office furniture at his official residence. Add to that the lighting in the living room that cost you Rs 12,033. Now, all that adds up to an official Rs 18,13,926.63. When the officials get going, the going gets official!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
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Jai Ho Taiwan! Eduardo Faleiro, Commissioner for NRI Affairs, could be off to Taiwan in October on the off chance, he said so himself, he might bump into some Goans there. Good luck to him. To the best of my knowledge there are two Goans in Tokyo, one of them I know, and is married to a Japanese lady. There’s opportunity there, Boss. Ditto for the Cayman Islands, where I have just discovered there are a bunch of Goans. And as for Goans in Kenya, there are just 2,000 of them according to my sources there. Since they are all Kenyan citizens, I really don’t see how the Indian embassy in Nairobi could be of use to them except to create further obstacles, if for some vague reason it were asked to help. When I travelled to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 2001, I was informed there that are only four Goan families left in Kisumu, a town on the shores of Lake Victoria on the Kenyan side. In Unguja, the main island of Zanzibar, I could trace and meet one Goan who had a travel agency there. The rest had all migrated. Now, my sources tell me there are barely 1,000 Goans in Tanzania and 200 in Uganda.
These Goans abroad do not need to be reminded about their Goan roots, simply because they will never forget. Their endless supply of Goan sausages, masalas and feni is testimony to their nostalgia for Goa and everything Goan. As for Goans living in Canada and the U.S. for that matter, the cost of a flight to Goa is simply daunting, and so most Goans there prefer to travel to the U.K. and Europe where they have a network of Goans. It’s simply a question of logistics and cost effectiveness. In fact if you are a regular reader of herald2day, you will have noticed that Goan themed restaurants or restaurants serving Goan food are only opened in the U.S. I can’t recall a Goan restaurant being opened in the U.K. I guess for all the obvious reasons.
Another time, another place
I recall writing a special report for Mumbai’s Mid-Day during Kuwait’s invasion by Iraq between August 1990 and January 1991 and to my surprise every Goan returnee I interviewed had a horror tale to tell of the sheer insensitivity of Indian embassies to all Indians wherever their help was sought.
Faleiro went there too, at least he stationed himself in a neighbouring country (I can’t remember which), to help. Apparently, his presence did not help one bit. Faleiro was there as a representative of Rajiv Gandhi’s opposition Congress (VP Singh was the Prime Minister at the time) and along with the then Foreign Minister Inder Kumar Gujral even met Iraq’s President Saddam Hussain. In an interview later, Faleiro was quoted as saying, “I must say I was given special treatment in meeting President Hussein. I suppose this was because his Baath Party had fraternal relations with the Congress.” But, sadly, accounts of fleeing Goans indicated they were not given special treatment.
Wasted Effort
My point is Indian embassies are as a rule uncooperative and not accommodating. And for this, I can vouch. When I lost my passport in Bejing in August 2007, I discovered to my everlasting disappointment that the Chinese police, authorities and my travel guide were overeager to help, but not the Indian embassy, then headed by Nirupama Rao, now India’s foreign secretary. The attitude I encountered was typically desi, every Indian at the embassy felt (and showed it) they were doing me a huge favour in issuing me a duplicate passport. In contrast a female Chinese police officer spent more time trying to explain to me the procedures in China, the job that should have been done by someone in the embassy. Fed up, I called up every senior journalist friend I knew in Delhi. Hey presto, it finally worked, and my passport was ready, but not before the laminating machine was purposely made to malfunction because my calling up ‘friends’ made me the most hated Indian in Beijing. In fact, when I went across to say thank you, one graceless official said –“Whatever.”
Adding to taxpayer's burden
If our montris are not going on their version of the Starship Enterprise missions abroad to sell Goa’s tourism industry or to save Goans abroad, they are preoccupied doing up their homes. Between June 8, 2007 and now, Rs 4,85,338 was spent on various repairs to the official home of Digambar Kamat, who apart from flying economy, would have you believe that he goes home to Margao for rest and recreation. But during that time Rs 5,40,612.63 was also spent painting up his Altinho residence. I don’t know who sits on his chairs, can’t be Churchill Alemao –he’s too busy doing his own thing like kickboxing; but Rs 7,75,973 was spent on ‘urgent’ repairs to the office furniture at his official residence. Add to that the lighting in the living room that cost you Rs 12,033. Now, all that adds up to an official Rs 18,13,926.63. When the officials get going, the going gets official!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
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Friday, August 21, 2009
Dhavlikar's Dubious deeds
Calling the kettle black
The Transport Minister Ramakrishna Dhavlikar has warned that if the government reneged on the contract awarded to Shimnit Utsch India Pvt. Ltd., to supply high security number plates, it ‘would have to pay through its nose’ the liquidated damages that would become payable to Shimnit. Boohoo. Of course, no figures were given to back the claim. There never are. On the contrary, the men responsible for not understanding the factors before they signed on the dotted line, might also be up for a bloody nose. Because, this is the way things are done in Government. In the business world, it’s called ‘backward integration’. In government, it works like this; first you swallow a huge dose of vitamin M. Fortified, you promise the sun and moon; and when inevitably you end up in the doghouse you backtrack, simultaneously threatening all sides. It happened with SEZs and is happening with the floating casinos. But expect more on this because Manohar Parrikar has a few tricks up his sleeve, so do some more concerned citizens from out of State, because there is much Dhavlikar does not know about the high security registration plates.
Talking about paying through the nose, between February 2005 to February 2009 your Government spent Rs 46,18,467 as legal fees paid to various lawyers in Dilli to defend the State before the Supreme Court. This includes some lakhs spent on opposing the petition filed by Dhavlikar challenging his disqualification by the Speaker Pratapsingh Rane.
Dhavlikar should have done his home work before he went gung ho on this one, after all there is this possibility of a bloody nose if the government has to compensate the SEZ applicants, sorry recipients of the government’s goodwill. There’s also this huge problem of the thousand of trucks, cars and even all kinds of two-wheelers with registrations from States like Himachal Pradesh, Dilli (naturally) and of course from Karnataka and Maharashtra that are in Goa almost permanently. These vehicles must be registered in Goa within 11 months. Their owners live here, work here or have businesses in Goa. What is Dhavlikar going to do about them? The answer, is he will ignore them, pretending they don’t exist. In fact, I can see yet another set of rules for Bhaillos and another for Goemkars.
Government goes shopping for Dhavlikar
I came across these details the other day which might interest you. Replacing a ‘garden fitting’ at his official Altinho bungalow cost the same government Rs 1,39,350. Must have been one hell of a garden fitting and unfortunately, I can’t throw more light on this. Replacing an air conditioner cost Rs 35,228. To set up home for him at F-0-1 in Altinho, the government spent Rs 28,924.65 on items like plastic mugs, a gas stove and a mixer grinder. Makes you wonder who took away all the stuff before he moved in. Among the other items the government bought with the Rs 28,924.65 are: double bed sheet set, dust bins, dusters, glasses, thermos flask, spoons, kitchen knife, pressure cooker, dinner plates, cups, pillows, more double bed sheets, bedspreads, towels, pillow covers, and door mats. There’s also this little detail of your government buying him a spanking new Honda City for Rs 8,78,000. I am beginning to think our MLAs richly deserved that salary hike.
Aires Rodrigues Vs Subodh Kantak
Digging up more dope on his bête noire Aires says that a close relative of his, a lawyer called Leena Anish Dharwadkar, who worked under Subodh Kantak was paid Rs 7,65,000 from February 2005 to March 2008 by way of fees. She has now been appointed manager (legal) at the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (GSIDC) on a salary of Rs 30,000 per month. GSIDC also appointed an assistant legal manager called Mohini Ramanathan Nair. Not bad, eh, Mr Dhavlikar, your government does have money to spend through both nostrils. Aires Rodrigues says Kantak himself was a GSIDC director from February 1, 2006 and resigned on September 13, 2007. He asks did Kantak resign to ensure that the selection of his kin to a key post did not look too obvious. Are you kidding?
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
The Transport Minister Ramakrishna Dhavlikar has warned that if the government reneged on the contract awarded to Shimnit Utsch India Pvt. Ltd., to supply high security number plates, it ‘would have to pay through its nose’ the liquidated damages that would become payable to Shimnit. Boohoo. Of course, no figures were given to back the claim. There never are. On the contrary, the men responsible for not understanding the factors before they signed on the dotted line, might also be up for a bloody nose. Because, this is the way things are done in Government. In the business world, it’s called ‘backward integration’. In government, it works like this; first you swallow a huge dose of vitamin M. Fortified, you promise the sun and moon; and when inevitably you end up in the doghouse you backtrack, simultaneously threatening all sides. It happened with SEZs and is happening with the floating casinos. But expect more on this because Manohar Parrikar has a few tricks up his sleeve, so do some more concerned citizens from out of State, because there is much Dhavlikar does not know about the high security registration plates.
Talking about paying through the nose, between February 2005 to February 2009 your Government spent Rs 46,18,467 as legal fees paid to various lawyers in Dilli to defend the State before the Supreme Court. This includes some lakhs spent on opposing the petition filed by Dhavlikar challenging his disqualification by the Speaker Pratapsingh Rane.
Dhavlikar should have done his home work before he went gung ho on this one, after all there is this possibility of a bloody nose if the government has to compensate the SEZ applicants, sorry recipients of the government’s goodwill. There’s also this huge problem of the thousand of trucks, cars and even all kinds of two-wheelers with registrations from States like Himachal Pradesh, Dilli (naturally) and of course from Karnataka and Maharashtra that are in Goa almost permanently. These vehicles must be registered in Goa within 11 months. Their owners live here, work here or have businesses in Goa. What is Dhavlikar going to do about them? The answer, is he will ignore them, pretending they don’t exist. In fact, I can see yet another set of rules for Bhaillos and another for Goemkars.
Government goes shopping for Dhavlikar
I came across these details the other day which might interest you. Replacing a ‘garden fitting’ at his official Altinho bungalow cost the same government Rs 1,39,350. Must have been one hell of a garden fitting and unfortunately, I can’t throw more light on this. Replacing an air conditioner cost Rs 35,228. To set up home for him at F-0-1 in Altinho, the government spent Rs 28,924.65 on items like plastic mugs, a gas stove and a mixer grinder. Makes you wonder who took away all the stuff before he moved in. Among the other items the government bought with the Rs 28,924.65 are: double bed sheet set, dust bins, dusters, glasses, thermos flask, spoons, kitchen knife, pressure cooker, dinner plates, cups, pillows, more double bed sheets, bedspreads, towels, pillow covers, and door mats. There’s also this little detail of your government buying him a spanking new Honda City for Rs 8,78,000. I am beginning to think our MLAs richly deserved that salary hike.
Aires Rodrigues Vs Subodh Kantak
Digging up more dope on his bête noire Aires says that a close relative of his, a lawyer called Leena Anish Dharwadkar, who worked under Subodh Kantak was paid Rs 7,65,000 from February 2005 to March 2008 by way of fees. She has now been appointed manager (legal) at the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (GSIDC) on a salary of Rs 30,000 per month. GSIDC also appointed an assistant legal manager called Mohini Ramanathan Nair. Not bad, eh, Mr Dhavlikar, your government does have money to spend through both nostrils. Aires Rodrigues says Kantak himself was a GSIDC director from February 1, 2006 and resigned on September 13, 2007. He asks did Kantak resign to ensure that the selection of his kin to a key post did not look too obvious. Are you kidding?
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
What models they'll make!!
A Madame Tussauds for Goa?
Perhaps the oldest colonial edifice in Goa, the old Secretariat building, or Adil Shah Palace or Palacio da Idalcao is currently being renovated at a cost of Rs 3,86,37,880 and the expenditure required to complete the renovation is currently pegged at Rs 7,25,62,120. This of course is peanuts compared to, I think, the Rs 36 crore that was spent to give Adil Shah’s inheritors a spanking new Assembly at Porvorim. It is the government’s intention to turn the old Secretariat “into a cultural centre thereby establishing art galleries, museums etc.” While it’s more than probable that the Rs 7,25,62,120 could rocket into space like the Agni-3 currently doing trials; what is true is that the government is fuzzy as to what it intends to do with it.
So be prepared for a mall to come up there or something equally kitschy. Because, apart from Madame Tussauds wax replicas of forty plus two you know who, past and present, I can’t think of anything else that can be preserved there for posterity. Can you? No, you can’t because the upkeep of the statues and artifacts was criticised in that very Assembly last week. And, if a raison d’etre be required, there is always the parallel of the UP chief minister to fall back on. But, trust me on this one, there are already a million Dilliwallahs jostling for a part of the action.
Remember, the Entertainment Society of Goa came up with ‘adaptive reuse’ when it wanted to lease out the Macquinez Palace (old GMC building, Campal, Panjim) to a Dilliwallah for a mall? On this one you are going to need a Thesaurus to come with an appropriate phrase. Here’s a thought: adaptive reuse is the process of adapting old structures for purposes other than those initially intended. And our montris are really, really good at this, don’t you think?
Proof of the Pudding
The you know who built their own Palacio da Idalcao (officially known as Goa Niwas, Chanakyapuri, Delhi) at a cost till date of Rs 16,72,69,000 and the projected cost is expected to be Rs 19,70,22,800. See, it’s always about “projected”. And of course the projected can get even more. What the government would call projected, but what I would say is easily predictable. For instance, if my memory serves me right, the original cost of the new Assembly at Porvorim was Rs 13 cr. It was re-estimated to cost Rs 26 cr. The information I have does not say how much our Government paid, or rather, you and I paid for the land to build the Goa Niwas, or, why so typically, your government always has an ‘estimated cost put to tender’ and an ‘up to date expenditure’. But then, we all know why, don’t we? In the first is where the creamy layer lies, in the second, is where the crème de la crème lies. Get it?
For the record
Civil & plumbing works –Rs 52770013 (estimated cost put to tender) Rs 92532650 (up to date expenditure); interior works – Rs 12572819.64- Rs 12393000; internal electrification -Rs 7715584-Rs 11897761; fixtures & fans –Rs 2081429-Rs 1982408; EPABX system –Rs 809329-Rs 492535; CCTV & car call system –Rs 1421155-Rs 520267.
Cops privatized?
Has the police department privatized its traffic cell, is a question people are asking these days and especially because after the UPA bounced back, its disinvestment plan is in place now that the Left which put a spoke in the wheel, is not part of the centre. It’s like this, in every vantage point in Goa, traffic police can be seen pocketing their self-imposed fines. In Panjim, they do it under the shade of the Mandovi bridge. You can also see them at the Cortalim traffic isle earning their keep, or at Filsu bar down the river side below where they celebrate with lunch and a few pegs. So, it’s being asked on the roads, has the department stopped paying salaries?
The office of the deputy superintendent of Police (traffic) traffic headquarters, Altinho, Panjim took this to a new level. A colleague gave me a challan served at his home in Aquem, I repeat SERVED TO HIM BY TWO POLICE CONSTABLES AT HIS HOME, charging him with driving his car at Quepem on a particular date and time (details withheld, but I have the original with me). He is now supposed to pay a fine of Rs 100 at the Altinho office. On that date and time he was in Panjim and neither he nor anybody else in the family drove to Quepem. Was his car selectively picked, was it randomly singled out or did the cops, err, as a car whizzed past contrive to get a number which turned out to be his. Let’s give the cops the benefit of the doubt, but to hand-serve the notice deploying two cops for a misdemeanor like not wearing a seat belt? Really now. There’s also this lawyer, quite a few people know in Margao who was also a victim. He was all fire and brimstone at first, but …… So, there might just be some truth in that rumour. God forbid!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Perhaps the oldest colonial edifice in Goa, the old Secretariat building, or Adil Shah Palace or Palacio da Idalcao is currently being renovated at a cost of Rs 3,86,37,880 and the expenditure required to complete the renovation is currently pegged at Rs 7,25,62,120. This of course is peanuts compared to, I think, the Rs 36 crore that was spent to give Adil Shah’s inheritors a spanking new Assembly at Porvorim. It is the government’s intention to turn the old Secretariat “into a cultural centre thereby establishing art galleries, museums etc.” While it’s more than probable that the Rs 7,25,62,120 could rocket into space like the Agni-3 currently doing trials; what is true is that the government is fuzzy as to what it intends to do with it.
So be prepared for a mall to come up there or something equally kitschy. Because, apart from Madame Tussauds wax replicas of forty plus two you know who, past and present, I can’t think of anything else that can be preserved there for posterity. Can you? No, you can’t because the upkeep of the statues and artifacts was criticised in that very Assembly last week. And, if a raison d’etre be required, there is always the parallel of the UP chief minister to fall back on. But, trust me on this one, there are already a million Dilliwallahs jostling for a part of the action.
Remember, the Entertainment Society of Goa came up with ‘adaptive reuse’ when it wanted to lease out the Macquinez Palace (old GMC building, Campal, Panjim) to a Dilliwallah for a mall? On this one you are going to need a Thesaurus to come with an appropriate phrase. Here’s a thought: adaptive reuse is the process of adapting old structures for purposes other than those initially intended. And our montris are really, really good at this, don’t you think?
Proof of the Pudding
The you know who built their own Palacio da Idalcao (officially known as Goa Niwas, Chanakyapuri, Delhi) at a cost till date of Rs 16,72,69,000 and the projected cost is expected to be Rs 19,70,22,800. See, it’s always about “projected”. And of course the projected can get even more. What the government would call projected, but what I would say is easily predictable. For instance, if my memory serves me right, the original cost of the new Assembly at Porvorim was Rs 13 cr. It was re-estimated to cost Rs 26 cr. The information I have does not say how much our Government paid, or rather, you and I paid for the land to build the Goa Niwas, or, why so typically, your government always has an ‘estimated cost put to tender’ and an ‘up to date expenditure’. But then, we all know why, don’t we? In the first is where the creamy layer lies, in the second, is where the crème de la crème lies. Get it?
For the record
Civil & plumbing works –Rs 52770013 (estimated cost put to tender) Rs 92532650 (up to date expenditure); interior works – Rs 12572819.64- Rs 12393000; internal electrification -Rs 7715584-Rs 11897761; fixtures & fans –Rs 2081429-Rs 1982408; EPABX system –Rs 809329-Rs 492535; CCTV & car call system –Rs 1421155-Rs 520267.
Cops privatized?
Has the police department privatized its traffic cell, is a question people are asking these days and especially because after the UPA bounced back, its disinvestment plan is in place now that the Left which put a spoke in the wheel, is not part of the centre. It’s like this, in every vantage point in Goa, traffic police can be seen pocketing their self-imposed fines. In Panjim, they do it under the shade of the Mandovi bridge. You can also see them at the Cortalim traffic isle earning their keep, or at Filsu bar down the river side below where they celebrate with lunch and a few pegs. So, it’s being asked on the roads, has the department stopped paying salaries?
The office of the deputy superintendent of Police (traffic) traffic headquarters, Altinho, Panjim took this to a new level. A colleague gave me a challan served at his home in Aquem, I repeat SERVED TO HIM BY TWO POLICE CONSTABLES AT HIS HOME, charging him with driving his car at Quepem on a particular date and time (details withheld, but I have the original with me). He is now supposed to pay a fine of Rs 100 at the Altinho office. On that date and time he was in Panjim and neither he nor anybody else in the family drove to Quepem. Was his car selectively picked, was it randomly singled out or did the cops, err, as a car whizzed past contrive to get a number which turned out to be his. Let’s give the cops the benefit of the doubt, but to hand-serve the notice deploying two cops for a misdemeanor like not wearing a seat belt? Really now. There’s also this lawyer, quite a few people know in Margao who was also a victim. He was all fire and brimstone at first, but …… So, there might just be some truth in that rumour. God forbid!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Monday, August 3, 2009
Rich Man, Poor Man
Cue on queue
Soon I will have to stand in a queue at my panchayat waiting to be issued a permit that proves I am a resident of Divar Island and therefore entitled to cross the ferry free. That is because my government dreamed up some eccentric freebie to help us islanders, instead of just giving us some decent ferries to cross over. It’s gotten so bad that a ferry will actually land on one side, its humans and vehicles disembark, and the ferry will hightail it to somewhere else on an SoS mission where yet another ferry has broken down. Musical ferries, it’s that bad. But, if it’s weird news you want: it’s in my DNA to give. The ferryboat Harmal is 22 years old, Penha-de France 19, Vagator 21, Colva 10, Diwar 10, Pomburpa 12 and Harvalem 18. In fact, some of them, because of the holes they have, remind me of the glass-bottomed boats I have seen in Mauritius and the Andamans and Nicobar Islands to view the flora and fauna. But between June 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009, our montris bought 22 cars at a cost of Rs 1,71,66,180 for themselves. Penny pinching is only for us aam aadmi as you can see. By the way, gamblers going to the floating casinos (never understood what ‘offshore’ means) will have to establish they are not Goans. I guess that means another kind of queue. This is getting tedious.
Thankfully tank full
Guess what, our ruling class is on clover, even if they’ll have you believe not financially and therefore are forced to continually upgrade their allowances or tuck at our cost; remember the assets they declared before the elections when we discovered their wives owned most of it? But here, I am talking about travelling from point A to point B. There are two jeeps (part of the escort) that drop the CM to his residence at Margao, from where ever he is, and return to Panjim. Next morning, they go all the way back to Margao etcetera, etcetera. And you think he is a petrol guzzler! Nah, that distinction goes to Tourism Minister Mickkey Pacheco parading his Hummer around Colva beach at nights, not to mention the temerity of parking it outside the hallowed Goa Assembly recently. When actor Suniel Shetty imported his many years ago, stats showed the Hummer’s fuel consumption could siphon off the Sal River inside a month. In other words, I am told it’s an ungenerous 3 km per litre. Poor man, Mickky could run dry one of these days. Not his purse, dope (considering he recently confessed that his winning in a casino was over a crore), the Hummer’s tank. By the way, General Motors which declared bankrupty recently is looking to hive off the expensive (1,00,000 dollars) car to another manufacturer because in the US, recession has driven people to small cars that economise on fuel. But here, it’s another story! India Shinning!
Oops!
Three weeks ago I wrote about how the Directorate of Health Services hired 280 guards, 6 security supervisors and 3 security officers to guard its 28 establishments, 22 of which are public health centres. I got an email saying that the RTI data was wrong. The email which contained not only the sender’s name but mobile no. too, said the actual figure was: security guards 525, women security guards 25, security supervisors 6, and security officers 3. The cost involved was a lot more than the Rs 198.10 lakh, the email revealed. The tender awarded to G4S was from August 1, 2008 and not from January 1, 2008, which now makes that a lesser period but for apparently a bigger expenditure. G4S is a multinational agency, a collaboration of Group 4 Falk of Britain and Securicore of America and not a Delhi-based agency, as I mentioned. And what I had said earlier was what was signed, sealed and delivered. Wonder who’s right?
One for the road
Quite literally. Of the 22 expensive cars our montris bought for themselves, 11 were Honda city cars each costing Rs 9,00,000, the kind of money it would take to repair a ramshackle of a ferryboat. Yeah, I know the government thinks it’s Rs 30,00,000 each. That’s another story. A Toyoti Innova costing Rs 9,05,680 allotted to the King of Kargoa (the to be merged State of Goa and Karwar) was in replacement of a car (GA-07-G-9700) which had run a measly 35,000 kms. A Toyota Corolla costing Rs 9,98,350 allotted to Jose Philip D’Souza was in replacement of a car (GA-07-G-0026) which had done just 28,000 kms. It’s another matter the two cars were re-allotted, my point is why does this government feel obliged to even offer an excuse or reason for spending your tax money. Just do it, as the ad says. No one’s looking. Besides, we expect nothing else from our extravagant montris!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Soon I will have to stand in a queue at my panchayat waiting to be issued a permit that proves I am a resident of Divar Island and therefore entitled to cross the ferry free. That is because my government dreamed up some eccentric freebie to help us islanders, instead of just giving us some decent ferries to cross over. It’s gotten so bad that a ferry will actually land on one side, its humans and vehicles disembark, and the ferry will hightail it to somewhere else on an SoS mission where yet another ferry has broken down. Musical ferries, it’s that bad. But, if it’s weird news you want: it’s in my DNA to give. The ferryboat Harmal is 22 years old, Penha-de France 19, Vagator 21, Colva 10, Diwar 10, Pomburpa 12 and Harvalem 18. In fact, some of them, because of the holes they have, remind me of the glass-bottomed boats I have seen in Mauritius and the Andamans and Nicobar Islands to view the flora and fauna. But between June 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009, our montris bought 22 cars at a cost of Rs 1,71,66,180 for themselves. Penny pinching is only for us aam aadmi as you can see. By the way, gamblers going to the floating casinos (never understood what ‘offshore’ means) will have to establish they are not Goans. I guess that means another kind of queue. This is getting tedious.
Thankfully tank full
Guess what, our ruling class is on clover, even if they’ll have you believe not financially and therefore are forced to continually upgrade their allowances or tuck at our cost; remember the assets they declared before the elections when we discovered their wives owned most of it? But here, I am talking about travelling from point A to point B. There are two jeeps (part of the escort) that drop the CM to his residence at Margao, from where ever he is, and return to Panjim. Next morning, they go all the way back to Margao etcetera, etcetera. And you think he is a petrol guzzler! Nah, that distinction goes to Tourism Minister Mickkey Pacheco parading his Hummer around Colva beach at nights, not to mention the temerity of parking it outside the hallowed Goa Assembly recently. When actor Suniel Shetty imported his many years ago, stats showed the Hummer’s fuel consumption could siphon off the Sal River inside a month. In other words, I am told it’s an ungenerous 3 km per litre. Poor man, Mickky could run dry one of these days. Not his purse, dope (considering he recently confessed that his winning in a casino was over a crore), the Hummer’s tank. By the way, General Motors which declared bankrupty recently is looking to hive off the expensive (1,00,000 dollars) car to another manufacturer because in the US, recession has driven people to small cars that economise on fuel. But here, it’s another story! India Shinning!
Oops!
Three weeks ago I wrote about how the Directorate of Health Services hired 280 guards, 6 security supervisors and 3 security officers to guard its 28 establishments, 22 of which are public health centres. I got an email saying that the RTI data was wrong. The email which contained not only the sender’s name but mobile no. too, said the actual figure was: security guards 525, women security guards 25, security supervisors 6, and security officers 3. The cost involved was a lot more than the Rs 198.10 lakh, the email revealed. The tender awarded to G4S was from August 1, 2008 and not from January 1, 2008, which now makes that a lesser period but for apparently a bigger expenditure. G4S is a multinational agency, a collaboration of Group 4 Falk of Britain and Securicore of America and not a Delhi-based agency, as I mentioned. And what I had said earlier was what was signed, sealed and delivered. Wonder who’s right?
One for the road
Quite literally. Of the 22 expensive cars our montris bought for themselves, 11 were Honda city cars each costing Rs 9,00,000, the kind of money it would take to repair a ramshackle of a ferryboat. Yeah, I know the government thinks it’s Rs 30,00,000 each. That’s another story. A Toyoti Innova costing Rs 9,05,680 allotted to the King of Kargoa (the to be merged State of Goa and Karwar) was in replacement of a car (GA-07-G-9700) which had run a measly 35,000 kms. A Toyota Corolla costing Rs 9,98,350 allotted to Jose Philip D’Souza was in replacement of a car (GA-07-G-0026) which had done just 28,000 kms. It’s another matter the two cars were re-allotted, my point is why does this government feel obliged to even offer an excuse or reason for spending your tax money. Just do it, as the ad says. No one’s looking. Besides, we expect nothing else from our extravagant montris!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Schooled to Boss
The Manovikas farce
The education ‘arrangement’ (I would like to call it that) in Goa is just like the Goa Assembly notwithstanding the two MLAs who forged their educational qualifications. But, to think the Manovikas High School in Margao qualifies! The recent AGM (July 10) of the school run by Therese Almeida, the founder with proven quality, was vintage Goan. Double standards, classic two-facedness, etcetera. The lights were put off when the ‘ruling class’ felt they had enough of the ‘opposition’ and Therese Almeida stormed out with a section of parents following meekly in her wake. In the Assembly, MLAs are expelled physically only when they resist going by themselves, so, I guess they are better. One PTA (parents, teachers association) member summed up the whole episode like this: ‘If she is going to such lengths, she has something to hide’. A routine PTA election meet turned out to be a platform for the school management to browbeat a section of parents. It began with a non agenda item when a newly recruited teacher obviously tasked with the job, began praising the management. She lambasted those parents who she felt were preventing the management from paying teachers the VI th pay commission scale. Her diatribe was a culmination of what every class teacher had been telling students in class, “Some parents are stopping our increments”. Sources say it is Therese Almeida who is instigating new teachers to make it look like some parents are not supporting the growth of the school. Her unspoken order: ‘never question me’. In other words create a heated debate and deftly deflect from the real issues that concerns students and therefore parents.
Divide and Rule
Divisive, did I say? One parent spoke well about the school but then added that parents opposing a fee hike were ‘anti-school.’ Another parent sang the same tune, adding, he was willing to pay ‘10 times more for a good education.’ But naturally, he works on a floating casino! And, the fees roughly are upwards of Rs 40,000 per year. The anti-parent stuff went on and on! An office bearer of an association that has gone to court on an issue relevant here (to the teachers pay actually) was personally attacked by Therese Almeida, who went to the extent of denying him an opportunity to speak. The man was even heckled by a section of parents. When the PTA president, ironically in the ‘opposition’ pleaded his case, he too was booed. The two parents were trying to get some clarity on the issue of the teachers not being paid their dues –strangely, a banned topic all these years at Manovikas.
Dance of Democracy
And, lo and behold when the elections were finally held, traumatic wouldn’t even begin to describe what unfolded. The 180 parents present were made to sign the ‘secret’ ballot papers and write their names down. This was done to prevent an ‘opposition’ member from getting elected. It also forced the teachers to vote for the ‘right’ candidate. The ‘opposition’ leader lost, but he did get 65 of the 180 votes. Take away the votes of the 40 teachers, it means the ‘official’ candidate had a close call. 140-65=75; 65+40=105. In a democracy, the ‘opposition’ would have won.
It would take several columns to describe the fracas at the PTA meet. But do know that Therese Almeida walked out, her chastising over, followed meekly by the teachers and some parents. Now, this is when that Goan duplicity stood out once again like a festering sore that refuses to heal. There were still 30/40 parents in the hall. The lights were switched off. Is this the way a PTA is conducted? No respect was shown to parents who wanted to present their side of the case, not necessarily on the ‘official’ side. However that one act of switching off the light won over a few parents.
Talk of cronyism and nepotism
Once outside the same hecklers became neoconverts. Two possible reasons. One they had already shown their allegiance to the director inside. Outside, they had to enact the double game, to show they were united with the other parents. As some hecklers justified, “we did not want to, but in the grapevine the news was you do not want to pay fees.” Therese Almeida no doubt made it appear that because parents are not paying the higher fees the school cannot hike salaries. Point is, there is little transparency here. The trust is a charitable organization and claims IT benefits -it is not supposed to make profits. It is also stuffed with an engineer and an architect, who have been awarded school construction contracts; a son- in- law (a daughter is a teacher), a former chairman’s daughter, and a former student in the electronics business.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
The education ‘arrangement’ (I would like to call it that) in Goa is just like the Goa Assembly notwithstanding the two MLAs who forged their educational qualifications. But, to think the Manovikas High School in Margao qualifies! The recent AGM (July 10) of the school run by Therese Almeida, the founder with proven quality, was vintage Goan. Double standards, classic two-facedness, etcetera. The lights were put off when the ‘ruling class’ felt they had enough of the ‘opposition’ and Therese Almeida stormed out with a section of parents following meekly in her wake. In the Assembly, MLAs are expelled physically only when they resist going by themselves, so, I guess they are better. One PTA (parents, teachers association) member summed up the whole episode like this: ‘If she is going to such lengths, she has something to hide’. A routine PTA election meet turned out to be a platform for the school management to browbeat a section of parents. It began with a non agenda item when a newly recruited teacher obviously tasked with the job, began praising the management. She lambasted those parents who she felt were preventing the management from paying teachers the VI th pay commission scale. Her diatribe was a culmination of what every class teacher had been telling students in class, “Some parents are stopping our increments”. Sources say it is Therese Almeida who is instigating new teachers to make it look like some parents are not supporting the growth of the school. Her unspoken order: ‘never question me’. In other words create a heated debate and deftly deflect from the real issues that concerns students and therefore parents.
Divide and Rule
Divisive, did I say? One parent spoke well about the school but then added that parents opposing a fee hike were ‘anti-school.’ Another parent sang the same tune, adding, he was willing to pay ‘10 times more for a good education.’ But naturally, he works on a floating casino! And, the fees roughly are upwards of Rs 40,000 per year. The anti-parent stuff went on and on! An office bearer of an association that has gone to court on an issue relevant here (to the teachers pay actually) was personally attacked by Therese Almeida, who went to the extent of denying him an opportunity to speak. The man was even heckled by a section of parents. When the PTA president, ironically in the ‘opposition’ pleaded his case, he too was booed. The two parents were trying to get some clarity on the issue of the teachers not being paid their dues –strangely, a banned topic all these years at Manovikas.
Dance of Democracy
And, lo and behold when the elections were finally held, traumatic wouldn’t even begin to describe what unfolded. The 180 parents present were made to sign the ‘secret’ ballot papers and write their names down. This was done to prevent an ‘opposition’ member from getting elected. It also forced the teachers to vote for the ‘right’ candidate. The ‘opposition’ leader lost, but he did get 65 of the 180 votes. Take away the votes of the 40 teachers, it means the ‘official’ candidate had a close call. 140-65=75; 65+40=105. In a democracy, the ‘opposition’ would have won.
It would take several columns to describe the fracas at the PTA meet. But do know that Therese Almeida walked out, her chastising over, followed meekly by the teachers and some parents. Now, this is when that Goan duplicity stood out once again like a festering sore that refuses to heal. There were still 30/40 parents in the hall. The lights were switched off. Is this the way a PTA is conducted? No respect was shown to parents who wanted to present their side of the case, not necessarily on the ‘official’ side. However that one act of switching off the light won over a few parents.
Talk of cronyism and nepotism
Once outside the same hecklers became neoconverts. Two possible reasons. One they had already shown their allegiance to the director inside. Outside, they had to enact the double game, to show they were united with the other parents. As some hecklers justified, “we did not want to, but in the grapevine the news was you do not want to pay fees.” Therese Almeida no doubt made it appear that because parents are not paying the higher fees the school cannot hike salaries. Point is, there is little transparency here. The trust is a charitable organization and claims IT benefits -it is not supposed to make profits. It is also stuffed with an engineer and an architect, who have been awarded school construction contracts; a son- in- law (a daughter is a teacher), a former chairman’s daughter, and a former student in the electronics business.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Friday, July 24, 2009
Health is Wealth
Health security concerns?
Who is it trying to keep away or, is the Directorate of Health Services actually trying to prevent someone/something escaping from within its walls? The department hired 280 guards, 6 security supervisors and 3 security officers to guard its 28 establishments, 22 of which are public health centres. But considering the public complaints against these centres, it would seem that none of them really warrant the kind of security they get. I am unable to comprehend why the TB Hospital in Margao requires 30 security guards and 3 security supervisors when the Cottage Hospital in Chicalim, Dabolim has only 6 guards. Or why another establishment in Margao, the Hospicio Hospital has to be guarded by 30 guards, 3 security supervisors and 3 security officers. Does it mean that Margao is more prone to robberies or as the good doctor would say ‘theft sensitive’? Bad enough, that the department had to deploy all the 9 security supervisors and officers at these two establishments. If you have dared to visit these ill equipped and poorly managed health institutions, what’s your diagnosis? But guess what? The total expenditure on this between January 1, 2008 and May 5, 2009 is Rs 198.10 lakh. No need to guess this time, but the beneficiary is a Delhi registered company called G4S Security Services (India) Pvt. Ltd. Yeah, it’s always Dilli.
Rane ODed!
Is the health department on an overdose of compassion? Vishwajit Rane’s insistence that the department and the Goa Medical College give insulin free of cost might set back their budgeting by several years. Already his deliberate misreading of the issue of GMC doctors insisting on prescribing ‘so-called’ better medicines allegedly not stocked at GMC, has forced patients to buy these prescribed drugs from outside. The so-called patient outcry on there being no proper medicines at GMC is born from this and nothing else. First there’s a bit of explanation that is in order here. Patients at GMC only seem to ‘want the best medicines’. So, they are obliged by doctors more than willing to oblige multinational pharmaceuticals who – and this is public knowledge now – are willing to spend big bucks on junkets for these docs to faraway Switzerland even or, hold posh ‘seminars’ where everyone lets their hair down, and all expenses paid. In fact, because of Rane’s insistence some of these drugs are being bought from outside. And, as we know for sure now, Rane has the guts to only bully female nurses, not the doctors, who should be ticked off for not sticking to the GMC’s WHO (World Health Organization) essential drug list that I am told reliably, GMC strictly adheres to. In fact, I am told that GMC dispenses medicines valued at Rs 1.50 lakh on a daily basis. And who are the beneficiaries? Nearly mostly migrant labourers, the army’s soldiers and if you spend time in the GMC’s parking lot, you will find ambulances driving even from faraway Sawantwadi. Yeah, do that, it will cure you of some of your mental blocks about some of the GMC’s harassed staff and medicos.
Rane, an Anbumani-clone?
Is Vishwajit Rane another Anbumani Ramadoss in the making? The fact that the former is Goa’s current health minister and the latter is India’s former health minister is all that is not common between them. They both orchestrated “surprise” visits to hospitals and suspended hapless staff. A nurse was shown the door after Rane dramatically pulled off a sheet at Goa Medical College recently to reveal a hole. The nurses were on the warpath. Both scions of political families have courted controversy and just like Ramadoss who had a running battle with the chief of AIIMS, Vishwajeet too has rubbed the dean of GMC the wrong way as a result of which Dr. V N Jindal has sought voluntary retirement.
What next? Like Anbumani, will Rane go on to rub celebs the wrong way so he can get publicity?
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Inspector Gadget
Marine Commmando Squad, Missing Persons Squad – these are not American TV serials which have stories inspired by real life. These are among the units that our Home Minister Ravi Naik intends to set up in Goa. All these names have a nice ring to them and Ravi Naik knows he’ll get his 15 minutes of fame in the media when he makes such grandiose announcements. He sure knows how to grab eyeballs. He demonstrated that when some months ago he dared Pramod Muthalik, infamous for orchestrating the attack on young women visiting a pub in Mangalore, to enter Goa. In May, after the body of a Russian teenager was found on the tracks in Tivim, Ravi Naik famously blamed foreigners for giving Goa a bad name by bringing in the booze and partying culture. Does the home minister know that many domestic tourists too booze and party as if it going out of style? Besides, if the home minister really means business won’t Goa be able to shed its reputation?
Coming back to the Marine Commando Squad, it seems our montri thinks he can spend tax payer’s money to get James Bond-like gadgets like high-speed interceptor boats, especially the 12-tonne Hell Raisers' that can be used for deep-sea patrolling. That his earlier proposal to set up an Anti Terrorism Squad has not get the centre’s green signal is no secret, so it seems that he has thought up this new avatar.
It seems strange that he should come up with these new-fangled names when the police has been found wanting when an alleged serial killer was on the loose for many months despite a missing persons complaint by 14 families (of the 16 he allegedly killed). By the way, now the police are going to have a Missing Persons Squad. It’s called locking the stable door after the horse has bolted! But all this begs the question – if the home minister had led from the front and got the police to do real police work, would he have to invent all these fancy-sounding squads?
What a song and dance
Recently, well known Hindustani classical singer and Padma Vibhushan awardee , Kishori Amonkar stormed off the stage at Kala Academy when she discovered that a casino was sponsoring her concert. To add insult to injury, she said she was not paid for the concert. She had never been so “insulted”, she said. To think she is a Goan.
Her grouse has been that classical music does not have enough government patronage. Are Goa’s cultural coffers so empty that they have to get a casino in for a classical concert? It’s another matter that they get booze companies to underwrite something like a Grape Escapade.
But, surprise, surprise, the Goa government does seem to have money for culture or so the details below would testify. But if someone of the eminence of Kishori Amonkar feels slighted one wonders where the money has gone, or should I say, who is the beneficiary of the government’s largesse?
A point to note is that Goa is known internationally for its song and dance. But not the kind of song that needs a harmonium for which Rs 21 lakhs was given and Pakhvaz for which Rs 7.50 lakhs was allotted. What a song and dance!
Details of the expenditure of Rs 48, 86,523 incurred in 2006-07 under the scheme to “Provide Musical Instruments and Performance Related Material to Cultural Troupes”:
Name of Item / Amount
Harmonium -21,02,100
Pakhvaz - 7,50,750
Zamkhan - 3,39,456
Cymbal (Taal) - 3,84,930
Keyboard - 8,00,000
Violin - 2,26,575
Guitar - 2,82,712
Total expenditure: Rs 48, 86,523
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Marine Commmando Squad, Missing Persons Squad – these are not American TV serials which have stories inspired by real life. These are among the units that our Home Minister Ravi Naik intends to set up in Goa. All these names have a nice ring to them and Ravi Naik knows he’ll get his 15 minutes of fame in the media when he makes such grandiose announcements. He sure knows how to grab eyeballs. He demonstrated that when some months ago he dared Pramod Muthalik, infamous for orchestrating the attack on young women visiting a pub in Mangalore, to enter Goa. In May, after the body of a Russian teenager was found on the tracks in Tivim, Ravi Naik famously blamed foreigners for giving Goa a bad name by bringing in the booze and partying culture. Does the home minister know that many domestic tourists too booze and party as if it going out of style? Besides, if the home minister really means business won’t Goa be able to shed its reputation?
Coming back to the Marine Commando Squad, it seems our montri thinks he can spend tax payer’s money to get James Bond-like gadgets like high-speed interceptor boats, especially the 12-tonne Hell Raisers' that can be used for deep-sea patrolling. That his earlier proposal to set up an Anti Terrorism Squad has not get the centre’s green signal is no secret, so it seems that he has thought up this new avatar.
It seems strange that he should come up with these new-fangled names when the police has been found wanting when an alleged serial killer was on the loose for many months despite a missing persons complaint by 14 families (of the 16 he allegedly killed). By the way, now the police are going to have a Missing Persons Squad. It’s called locking the stable door after the horse has bolted! But all this begs the question – if the home minister had led from the front and got the police to do real police work, would he have to invent all these fancy-sounding squads?
What a song and dance
Recently, well known Hindustani classical singer and Padma Vibhushan awardee , Kishori Amonkar stormed off the stage at Kala Academy when she discovered that a casino was sponsoring her concert. To add insult to injury, she said she was not paid for the concert. She had never been so “insulted”, she said. To think she is a Goan.
Her grouse has been that classical music does not have enough government patronage. Are Goa’s cultural coffers so empty that they have to get a casino in for a classical concert? It’s another matter that they get booze companies to underwrite something like a Grape Escapade.
But, surprise, surprise, the Goa government does seem to have money for culture or so the details below would testify. But if someone of the eminence of Kishori Amonkar feels slighted one wonders where the money has gone, or should I say, who is the beneficiary of the government’s largesse?
A point to note is that Goa is known internationally for its song and dance. But not the kind of song that needs a harmonium for which Rs 21 lakhs was given and Pakhvaz for which Rs 7.50 lakhs was allotted. What a song and dance!
Details of the expenditure of Rs 48, 86,523 incurred in 2006-07 under the scheme to “Provide Musical Instruments and Performance Related Material to Cultural Troupes”:
Name of Item / Amount
Harmonium -21,02,100
Pakhvaz - 7,50,750
Zamkhan - 3,39,456
Cymbal (Taal) - 3,84,930
Keyboard - 8,00,000
Violin - 2,26,575
Guitar - 2,82,712
Total expenditure: Rs 48, 86,523
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
A Profligate Government
A “cranky” Russian
When a Russian teenager was found dead recently, a Russian consulate official came here apparently on a fact-finding mission as well as to complete some formalities. A little bird says that the official was “cranky” even during a meeting with Chief Minister Digambar Kamat. It’s almost as if he blamed the government for the young girl’s death when we all know that drug rumours swirled around her after her death. The normally reticent CM apparently showed his irritation with the official’s attitude. An official in on the meeting pointed out that the consular official got easy access to the CM (because that’s how we are, given the circumstances). When Indians died under a cloud in Russia, relatives were forced to run from pillar to post. Forget a high ranking politician, even meeting a top cop in Russia can be ruled out despite glasnost/perestroika.
Goa government’s profligacy
Forget MLAs who seem to have no scruples crossing floors into the arms of the highest bidder, even the Goa government is short on morals and often does not do the right thing. In fact it is the government which tacitly encourages MLAs to do their own thing and then goes to court to litigate thereby piling up work, not to speak of fees, for its lawyers. No wonder then there are so many around. Below is a list of the fees paid to various government lawyers, special counsels, senior counsels etc to appear before the Bombay High Court, tribunals, arbitrators etc from February 11, 2005 till date.
Total fees paid to various government lawyers, special counsels, senior counsels, advocates on records to appear before the Bombay High Court, tribunals, arbitrators etc February 11, 2005 till date.
1 Emercio Afonso 3,16,450
2 Shaikh Vahidulla 4,99,100
3 Winnie Courinho 1,727,806
4 Atancio Cardoz 2,08,600
5 SR Rivonkar 929,000
6 Sanjiv G Sardessai 93,250
7 Guru Shirodkar 1,069,000
8 NK Sawaikar 97,300
9 HD NAik 64,000
10 Shri K Y Thally 3,00,650
11 Shri PA kamat 1,55,100
12 SN Sardessai 2,52,000
13 HR Bharne 1,47,500
14 Parmanand Naik 2,05,400
15 Antancio Monteiro 1,26,350
16 GV Tamba 86,500
17 MP Sawaikar 1,35,500
18 RR Sangodkar 44,000
19 BV Sukhtankar 9,925
20 GD Kirtani 9,81,950
21 Rajesh Narvenkar 1,80,000
22 VP Thally 78,000
23 Susan Linhares 2,89,200
24 SN Shinde 19,300
25 EP Lobo 1,71,250
26 Datta Prasad V Prabhu Lawande 44,000
27 Nilesh A Takkekar 33,000
28 Sarvesh S Kamat Malyekar 33,000
29 Santosh H Bharne 14,700
30 Amol Thaly 26,500
31 Pratapsingh M Nimbalkar 38,300
32 JV Coelho 29,500
33 MS Joshi 1,71,000
34 John S Lobo 55,500
35 Rakhi M Chodankar 11,25,000
36 Gauri DS Bhosle 5,35,000
37 Leena Dharwadkar 7,65,500
38 Kanchan Chodankar 2,41,500
39 Vallabh Pangum 14,650
40 Manish Salkar 7,09,200
41 Subhash Pundalik Sawant 43,133
42 Harsha Naik 41,550
43 Agnelo D’Costa 2,14,050
44 Carlose Ferria 1,11,500
45 Dilip P Dabholkar 1,82,200
46 Irshad Aga 47,700
47 Durga Kinlekar 14,800
48 Rabindranath Menezes 2,64,750
49 Kishore P Prabhudessai 1,84,923
50 Talentina Xavier 1,51,200
51 Prashant Kamat 4,27,000
52 AT Kamat, govt counsel 23,450
53 Nitin NN Sardessai 2,53,000
54 RM Lotlikar 11,70,981
55 Albino C Vales 22,200
56 Prashant V Borkar 3,88,350
57 TG Jaques 2,36,100
58 Jayant Prabhu 11,400
59 VM Patkar 2,100
60 Abhijeet Kamat 2,11,000
61 Rajendra G Raut Dessai 74,950
62 Kala Dalal 16,800
63 Kishor Bhagat 7,000
64 Sapna Mordekar 1,40,000
65 Milagries P Fernandes 12,75,800
66 Vivek Rodrigues 73,500
67 Sameer A Bandodkar 49,000
68 I C Dias 2,43,855
69 Vinoj Daniel 2,86,824
70 SB Faria 2,22,000
71 Ramkrishna Bhale 5,700
72 Ignasious Dias 92,300
73 Vijay Nadkarni 4,50,000
74 Gauranj Sirsat 77,400
75 CR Rodrigues 33,900
76 Peter Fernandes 72,400
77 R G Bhale 54,300
TOTAL 1,92,09,597
Total fees paid to SC lawyers from February 11, 2005 till date
1 Anip Sachthey 6,24,400
2 Madhu Sikri 33,000
3 Harin P Rawal 100,000
4 Shriniwas S Khalap 200,000
5 Huzefa Ahmadi 160,000
6 Anupam Las Das 33,000
7 KK Venugopal 880,000
8 K Parasaran 1,072,500
9 A Subhasini 157,645
10 Srinivas R Khalap 535,922
11 S K Kakodkar 315,000
12 Nimalini Gore 30,000
13 F S Nariman 385,000
14 Uday U Lalit 33,000
15 R N Karanjawala 59,000
Total 46,18,467
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
When a Russian teenager was found dead recently, a Russian consulate official came here apparently on a fact-finding mission as well as to complete some formalities. A little bird says that the official was “cranky” even during a meeting with Chief Minister Digambar Kamat. It’s almost as if he blamed the government for the young girl’s death when we all know that drug rumours swirled around her after her death. The normally reticent CM apparently showed his irritation with the official’s attitude. An official in on the meeting pointed out that the consular official got easy access to the CM (because that’s how we are, given the circumstances). When Indians died under a cloud in Russia, relatives were forced to run from pillar to post. Forget a high ranking politician, even meeting a top cop in Russia can be ruled out despite glasnost/perestroika.
Goa government’s profligacy
Forget MLAs who seem to have no scruples crossing floors into the arms of the highest bidder, even the Goa government is short on morals and often does not do the right thing. In fact it is the government which tacitly encourages MLAs to do their own thing and then goes to court to litigate thereby piling up work, not to speak of fees, for its lawyers. No wonder then there are so many around. Below is a list of the fees paid to various government lawyers, special counsels, senior counsels etc to appear before the Bombay High Court, tribunals, arbitrators etc from February 11, 2005 till date.
Total fees paid to various government lawyers, special counsels, senior counsels, advocates on records to appear before the Bombay High Court, tribunals, arbitrators etc February 11, 2005 till date.
1 Emercio Afonso 3,16,450
2 Shaikh Vahidulla 4,99,100
3 Winnie Courinho 1,727,806
4 Atancio Cardoz 2,08,600
5 SR Rivonkar 929,000
6 Sanjiv G Sardessai 93,250
7 Guru Shirodkar 1,069,000
8 NK Sawaikar 97,300
9 HD NAik 64,000
10 Shri K Y Thally 3,00,650
11 Shri PA kamat 1,55,100
12 SN Sardessai 2,52,000
13 HR Bharne 1,47,500
14 Parmanand Naik 2,05,400
15 Antancio Monteiro 1,26,350
16 GV Tamba 86,500
17 MP Sawaikar 1,35,500
18 RR Sangodkar 44,000
19 BV Sukhtankar 9,925
20 GD Kirtani 9,81,950
21 Rajesh Narvenkar 1,80,000
22 VP Thally 78,000
23 Susan Linhares 2,89,200
24 SN Shinde 19,300
25 EP Lobo 1,71,250
26 Datta Prasad V Prabhu Lawande 44,000
27 Nilesh A Takkekar 33,000
28 Sarvesh S Kamat Malyekar 33,000
29 Santosh H Bharne 14,700
30 Amol Thaly 26,500
31 Pratapsingh M Nimbalkar 38,300
32 JV Coelho 29,500
33 MS Joshi 1,71,000
34 John S Lobo 55,500
35 Rakhi M Chodankar 11,25,000
36 Gauri DS Bhosle 5,35,000
37 Leena Dharwadkar 7,65,500
38 Kanchan Chodankar 2,41,500
39 Vallabh Pangum 14,650
40 Manish Salkar 7,09,200
41 Subhash Pundalik Sawant 43,133
42 Harsha Naik 41,550
43 Agnelo D’Costa 2,14,050
44 Carlose Ferria 1,11,500
45 Dilip P Dabholkar 1,82,200
46 Irshad Aga 47,700
47 Durga Kinlekar 14,800
48 Rabindranath Menezes 2,64,750
49 Kishore P Prabhudessai 1,84,923
50 Talentina Xavier 1,51,200
51 Prashant Kamat 4,27,000
52 AT Kamat, govt counsel 23,450
53 Nitin NN Sardessai 2,53,000
54 RM Lotlikar 11,70,981
55 Albino C Vales 22,200
56 Prashant V Borkar 3,88,350
57 TG Jaques 2,36,100
58 Jayant Prabhu 11,400
59 VM Patkar 2,100
60 Abhijeet Kamat 2,11,000
61 Rajendra G Raut Dessai 74,950
62 Kala Dalal 16,800
63 Kishor Bhagat 7,000
64 Sapna Mordekar 1,40,000
65 Milagries P Fernandes 12,75,800
66 Vivek Rodrigues 73,500
67 Sameer A Bandodkar 49,000
68 I C Dias 2,43,855
69 Vinoj Daniel 2,86,824
70 SB Faria 2,22,000
71 Ramkrishna Bhale 5,700
72 Ignasious Dias 92,300
73 Vijay Nadkarni 4,50,000
74 Gauranj Sirsat 77,400
75 CR Rodrigues 33,900
76 Peter Fernandes 72,400
77 R G Bhale 54,300
TOTAL 1,92,09,597
Total fees paid to SC lawyers from February 11, 2005 till date
1 Anip Sachthey 6,24,400
2 Madhu Sikri 33,000
3 Harin P Rawal 100,000
4 Shriniwas S Khalap 200,000
5 Huzefa Ahmadi 160,000
6 Anupam Las Das 33,000
7 KK Venugopal 880,000
8 K Parasaran 1,072,500
9 A Subhasini 157,645
10 Srinivas R Khalap 535,922
11 S K Kakodkar 315,000
12 Nimalini Gore 30,000
13 F S Nariman 385,000
14 Uday U Lalit 33,000
15 R N Karanjawala 59,000
Total 46,18,467
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Mackenna's Gold
This ore is our ore
The Dempos sold over 1,800 hectares of leased mining licenses to Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources for a cash-and-carry sum of Rs 1,750 crore. But, hang on, did they actually own the ore on the land they owned, notwithstanding the fact no individual can own mineral rights in India? The distressing answer is a huge ‘NO’. Why? Because mineral wealth is the nation’s wealth -not for individuals to exploit for their personal benefit. The U.S is the only country on the planet that allows individuals to own mineral rights. And we all know what those merry band of individuals, who not only own minerals, also everything above and below earth, did to the worlds’ economy. Through a rather cunning exploitative route, the Government of India was thwarted in its plans to nationalize the mines in Goa decades ago –the compromise was the mining leases you have in Goa today. What the Government of India did was annul the concessions given by the Portuguese for perpetuity and came out with The Goa, Daman and Diu Mining Concessions (Aboliton and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act, 1987. So, while everyone applauded, the deal of the century (Dempo-Vedanta) was played out making maximium use of Goa’s red soil.
Surface Rights or Mineral Rights?
If you calculate the quantity of ore that has been dug out from the earth and sold to the Japanese alone, it would give you sleepless night thinking of what the worth of that could have done for Goa. Macau would look like a poor man’s Shangri La. Here’s a bit of information that should at least make you want to pull your hair out, so you can sleep at least. Sesa Goa’s lineage has been transformed since 1954 when it kicked off as Scambi Economi SA, Goa. The following year it was jointly renamed Sesa Goa Ltd. After it was jointly taken over by Gewerkeschaft Exploration, West Germany, and Ferromin SpA, Italy, a subsidiary of Finsider SpA, belonging to the IRI group –which by then had acquired the German company’s stake in Sesa. Mingoa Pvt. Ltd and Sesa Goa were merged into one company.
Later, in the course of restructuring of certain subsidiaries within the IRI group, Sesa Goa’s ownership changed from Finsider SpA to Finsider International SA, Luxembourg, and then to Finsider International, UK. Phew! Looks like a soccer game, the way they kick around (on) Goa’s scarred red soil. In 1981, Finsider divested 60 per cent of its shareholding to the Indian public. It hiked it again under its new name Ilva International, from 40 per cent to 51 per cent in 1993 –now under the RILP umbrella. Now, tell me what stops Vedanta from selling the combined might of their mines to China’s Chinalco who were willing to offer a $19.5-billion-cash injection in favour of a joint venture in Western Australia with bitter rival BHP Billiton, just to keep out another rival Rio Tinto. It’s a long story, but what needs to be understood here, is when rare earth gets rarer $19.5 billion becomes peanuts. That’s why the US is willing to fight a trillion dollar war in Iraq to gain control over crude oil that costs far, far less to refine closer to home. And may I remind you that Rs 1,750 crore would mean chickens*#t, considering the low rupee value against the dollar, and no deterrent to future buyers like the Chinese going on an acquisition spree.
Jogging your memory
When I interviewed Emilio Riva who owned RILP in 1995 for a national business daily, in Sesa Ghor, it was crystal clear to me, that he had no intention of retaining ownership of the Sesa Goa he had just acquired. Though he denied it at the interview, he soon sold it to Mitsui who appeared to have the same itch to sell as all Sesa Goa owners inherently have; and sold it to Vedanta. The Italian billionaire had at that point of time acquired Ilva Laminati Piani SpA, Italy (ILP) the holding company of Finsider International Co. Ltd., U.K., which was Sesa Goa’s principal shareholder then. The Riva Group rose from 25th position to become the world’s fourth largest steel producer after it acquired ILP. See, it’s all about power, wealth and screw the rest. Incidentally, the Essar Group also had a 32 per cent stake in RILP!
PS: My apologies if the 2-Fast-2-Furious pace of describing how Sesa Goa was sold over the years made you tizzy. But within this restricted June 11, 2009 space I couldn’t do any better.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
The Dempos sold over 1,800 hectares of leased mining licenses to Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources for a cash-and-carry sum of Rs 1,750 crore. But, hang on, did they actually own the ore on the land they owned, notwithstanding the fact no individual can own mineral rights in India? The distressing answer is a huge ‘NO’. Why? Because mineral wealth is the nation’s wealth -not for individuals to exploit for their personal benefit. The U.S is the only country on the planet that allows individuals to own mineral rights. And we all know what those merry band of individuals, who not only own minerals, also everything above and below earth, did to the worlds’ economy. Through a rather cunning exploitative route, the Government of India was thwarted in its plans to nationalize the mines in Goa decades ago –the compromise was the mining leases you have in Goa today. What the Government of India did was annul the concessions given by the Portuguese for perpetuity and came out with The Goa, Daman and Diu Mining Concessions (Aboliton and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act, 1987. So, while everyone applauded, the deal of the century (Dempo-Vedanta) was played out making maximium use of Goa’s red soil.
Surface Rights or Mineral Rights?
If you calculate the quantity of ore that has been dug out from the earth and sold to the Japanese alone, it would give you sleepless night thinking of what the worth of that could have done for Goa. Macau would look like a poor man’s Shangri La. Here’s a bit of information that should at least make you want to pull your hair out, so you can sleep at least. Sesa Goa’s lineage has been transformed since 1954 when it kicked off as Scambi Economi SA, Goa. The following year it was jointly renamed Sesa Goa Ltd. After it was jointly taken over by Gewerkeschaft Exploration, West Germany, and Ferromin SpA, Italy, a subsidiary of Finsider SpA, belonging to the IRI group –which by then had acquired the German company’s stake in Sesa. Mingoa Pvt. Ltd and Sesa Goa were merged into one company.
Later, in the course of restructuring of certain subsidiaries within the IRI group, Sesa Goa’s ownership changed from Finsider SpA to Finsider International SA, Luxembourg, and then to Finsider International, UK. Phew! Looks like a soccer game, the way they kick around (on) Goa’s scarred red soil. In 1981, Finsider divested 60 per cent of its shareholding to the Indian public. It hiked it again under its new name Ilva International, from 40 per cent to 51 per cent in 1993 –now under the RILP umbrella. Now, tell me what stops Vedanta from selling the combined might of their mines to China’s Chinalco who were willing to offer a $19.5-billion-cash injection in favour of a joint venture in Western Australia with bitter rival BHP Billiton, just to keep out another rival Rio Tinto. It’s a long story, but what needs to be understood here, is when rare earth gets rarer $19.5 billion becomes peanuts. That’s why the US is willing to fight a trillion dollar war in Iraq to gain control over crude oil that costs far, far less to refine closer to home. And may I remind you that Rs 1,750 crore would mean chickens*#t, considering the low rupee value against the dollar, and no deterrent to future buyers like the Chinese going on an acquisition spree.
Jogging your memory
When I interviewed Emilio Riva who owned RILP in 1995 for a national business daily, in Sesa Ghor, it was crystal clear to me, that he had no intention of retaining ownership of the Sesa Goa he had just acquired. Though he denied it at the interview, he soon sold it to Mitsui who appeared to have the same itch to sell as all Sesa Goa owners inherently have; and sold it to Vedanta. The Italian billionaire had at that point of time acquired Ilva Laminati Piani SpA, Italy (ILP) the holding company of Finsider International Co. Ltd., U.K., which was Sesa Goa’s principal shareholder then. The Riva Group rose from 25th position to become the world’s fourth largest steel producer after it acquired ILP. See, it’s all about power, wealth and screw the rest. Incidentally, the Essar Group also had a 32 per cent stake in RILP!
PS: My apologies if the 2-Fast-2-Furious pace of describing how Sesa Goa was sold over the years made you tizzy. But within this restricted June 11, 2009 space I couldn’t do any better.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
All hot air
Debate needed
Wonder why your 40 rulers never debate issues in the State Assembly where they are constitutionally bound (leave aside the meaningless oath they take) to discuss issues that affect the public? Instead they just score debating points against each other and real issues get sidetracked. Here’s another thought. If they did oblige you their game would be up, wouldn’t it? And you would know because you can see through their games. That’s why the BJP waits till the crap hits the ceiling and become the heroes going by the media play they get by bringing up a ‘burning’ issue in the assembly. That the media focuses on non-issues is another matter altogether. Often, a press conference timed just before the Assembly session, adds fuel to the fire. That is why no Assembly debate will ever be had on why Churchill Alemao wants the new State of Kargoa, i.e., a merged Karwar and Goa. Or perhaps a debate on how he finally got on to the home lane on the issue of four or six laning the NH from Panjim to Margao; or, if it should be extended to Karwar! After all, Churchill, who is tipped to be the first chief minister of Kargao, did say ‘take me seriously’ outside the assembly not inside. Or, a debate on whose side the Dhavlikar Brothers and Vishwajit Rane are on, rather how many sides they are on. Because whichever way they might want to interpret voters’ rights in Sankhali, you have a constitutional right to know which way they swing. But, these debates are never going to happen in the Assembly. So, let’s do it here.
But debate this for Godsakes
The GTDC I fear could turn into an ogre, if let out of its cage unfettered. It was turned into a dangerously big corporation when all the properties owned by the Tourism Department were transferred to it. Why, for example, did the Tourism Department or GTDC sign a 21 year-lease agreement for the Terekhol Fort Heritage for a rental of Rs 1,05,000 per month with a Harkishan Ajwani. Why commit to as far away as 2023 in as early 2002. Where is the commercial sense in this? And will the honchos who bid for GTDC’s land because they are money driven, not demand 99-year-old leases in return for the crores they will invest. All considered why lease out the Old Goa Residency restaurant for a mere Rs 22,950 per month. In fact, GTDC has literally hundreds of leased out shops whose lease agreements must be researched and revaluated for their real potential. And when I say real potential, I mean potential to the tourism industry which appears to occupy the minds of the people who run the GTDC these days. When I last checked, GTDC had not leased out its cafeteria and land at Pomburpa. Earlier, when it had, it fixed a lease hire of Rs 2,144! It has not leased out its land with a restaurant at Vagator because of a dispute over the availability of water there. Since it had earlier fixed a lease rent of Rs 1,68,096, it translates into losing exactly that kind of revenue. But, this GTDC will not study issues like those described here, on the contrary it is rubbing its hands in glee at the prospects of the ‘financial’ opportunity in the property it has in its possession.
Should not the GTDC lease its hotels to industry players who have the expertise and money to back their expertise? After all, there literally is not a hotel group in India that is not looking to buy, is buying hotels or taking them over on lease. GTDC has 12 hotels with a total room capacity of 529, and in the past when it wanted it did privatise three hotels in Mollem, Terekhol and Pernem with a total room capacity of 38.
This land is our land
Calangute 3,769 sq mt meant for developing a shopping complex.
Calangute 4,583.10 sq mt meant to expand Calangute Residency.
Calangute 1,850 sq mt meant to construction a resort.
Calangute 22,850 sq mt to construct dormitory, car/bus park, cottages.
Calangute 22,081 sq mt meant for providing basic amenities.
Calangute 276 sq mt meant for constructing toilet.
Baga 29,925 sq mt Fatima D’Sa when she was GTDC chairperson had her own plans for it.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Wonder why your 40 rulers never debate issues in the State Assembly where they are constitutionally bound (leave aside the meaningless oath they take) to discuss issues that affect the public? Instead they just score debating points against each other and real issues get sidetracked. Here’s another thought. If they did oblige you their game would be up, wouldn’t it? And you would know because you can see through their games. That’s why the BJP waits till the crap hits the ceiling and become the heroes going by the media play they get by bringing up a ‘burning’ issue in the assembly. That the media focuses on non-issues is another matter altogether. Often, a press conference timed just before the Assembly session, adds fuel to the fire. That is why no Assembly debate will ever be had on why Churchill Alemao wants the new State of Kargoa, i.e., a merged Karwar and Goa. Or perhaps a debate on how he finally got on to the home lane on the issue of four or six laning the NH from Panjim to Margao; or, if it should be extended to Karwar! After all, Churchill, who is tipped to be the first chief minister of Kargao, did say ‘take me seriously’ outside the assembly not inside. Or, a debate on whose side the Dhavlikar Brothers and Vishwajit Rane are on, rather how many sides they are on. Because whichever way they might want to interpret voters’ rights in Sankhali, you have a constitutional right to know which way they swing. But, these debates are never going to happen in the Assembly. So, let’s do it here.
But debate this for Godsakes
The GTDC I fear could turn into an ogre, if let out of its cage unfettered. It was turned into a dangerously big corporation when all the properties owned by the Tourism Department were transferred to it. Why, for example, did the Tourism Department or GTDC sign a 21 year-lease agreement for the Terekhol Fort Heritage for a rental of Rs 1,05,000 per month with a Harkishan Ajwani. Why commit to as far away as 2023 in as early 2002. Where is the commercial sense in this? And will the honchos who bid for GTDC’s land because they are money driven, not demand 99-year-old leases in return for the crores they will invest. All considered why lease out the Old Goa Residency restaurant for a mere Rs 22,950 per month. In fact, GTDC has literally hundreds of leased out shops whose lease agreements must be researched and revaluated for their real potential. And when I say real potential, I mean potential to the tourism industry which appears to occupy the minds of the people who run the GTDC these days. When I last checked, GTDC had not leased out its cafeteria and land at Pomburpa. Earlier, when it had, it fixed a lease hire of Rs 2,144! It has not leased out its land with a restaurant at Vagator because of a dispute over the availability of water there. Since it had earlier fixed a lease rent of Rs 1,68,096, it translates into losing exactly that kind of revenue. But, this GTDC will not study issues like those described here, on the contrary it is rubbing its hands in glee at the prospects of the ‘financial’ opportunity in the property it has in its possession.
Should not the GTDC lease its hotels to industry players who have the expertise and money to back their expertise? After all, there literally is not a hotel group in India that is not looking to buy, is buying hotels or taking them over on lease. GTDC has 12 hotels with a total room capacity of 529, and in the past when it wanted it did privatise three hotels in Mollem, Terekhol and Pernem with a total room capacity of 38.
This land is our land
Calangute 3,769 sq mt meant for developing a shopping complex.
Calangute 4,583.10 sq mt meant to expand Calangute Residency.
Calangute 1,850 sq mt meant to construction a resort.
Calangute 22,850 sq mt to construct dormitory, car/bus park, cottages.
Calangute 22,081 sq mt meant for providing basic amenities.
Calangute 276 sq mt meant for constructing toilet.
Baga 29,925 sq mt Fatima D’Sa when she was GTDC chairperson had her own plans for it.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
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