Malar Miseries

Republic of Malar?


On February 11, 2008 to be precise, when I submitted a series of questions under RTI to the Malar VP in the island of Divar, the instant reaction of the secretary was: 'why do you want to put us in trouble?' He had barely read the questions, but understood instantly the implications. The VP did write back on March 3 saying the information was ready –"could you collect it?' When I did, the answers were not ready and my inquiry obtained this response: "The Xerox machine is not working." Eventually, the VP reluctantly submitted answers to some rather simple questions, as you can fathom yourself. But, it appeared to fear even a casual scrutiny of its performance; apparently because such an examination had never occurred before. Fact is this VP does nothing except approve of unexplained expenditure here and there and that of the fat cats who run it like their private fiefdom.

Lackadaisical Malar VP

Proof of this is many of Malar's residents refuse to pay house tax because the VP has done nothing to deserve their money. Albeit, small amounts for individuals, but huge if collectively accounted for and because that goes only to pay for only the upkeep of the VP's administrative machinery. In May 2008 as a consequence Rs 87,222.90 was the amount of unpaid house tax. But a fibreglass boat builder earning crores of rupees in Malar has been levied house tax of Rs 2500 for its "old existing rooms and Rs10,000 for the remaining construction and bonded house." My question 'on what basis is the tax calculated' was never answered! As for the island's ayurvedic resort, it has been levied tax at the rate of Rs 5-10 per M2 on the old structure and Rs15 per M2 on new structures. In incomprehensible English, the VP appeared to have suggested that tax was levied on the assumption the room tariff was Rs1000! But, I could be way off the mark. Again, no details were offered on how the tax was calculated.
Dramatically, within weeks, a bunch of school kids were hired and sent out to re-measure a few houses in Malar ostensibly because the VP wanted to review its house tax levy. They were not briefed properly, ignorant of the task at hand and had the impudence to produce a blank form which they asked home owners to sign. So pitiful was this hoax, it died a natural death.

Or VP of self-employment!

Here are more stats for you to make your own mind up: a) Amount of administrative grants for payment of VP salaries: 2005 - Rs20,000, 2006 - Rs20,000, 2007 - Rs40,000
To the many who do not know, administrative grants are earmarked only for 'weak' VPs, that is, VPs with a non-planned gap. In other words the VPs establishment and maintainence costs deducted from its own resources (or revenue) is what amounts to non-planned gap. In other words administrative grants pay for non-planned gap. Put more succinctly, it means your valuable tax money pays only for the administrative upkeep in the case of the 'weak' Malar VP because it does nothing else but 'administrate' itself. It even admitted submitting two resolutions, one each to the PWD to repair roads (easily Goa's worst for a VP) and one to the Irrigation Department to repair the bunds greedy fish contractors destroy routinely in both VPs in Divar Island without a care for the destruction they cause. Apart from this, the only other social or welfare work it did was to handout out some minor sums of money to a blatantly one-sided choice of recipients. Herald has this list as well as the salaries paid to the panchas from 2005.
b)Amount of matching grants: 2005 - Rs 64,496, 2006 - Rs1,88,841, 2007 - Rs 1,92,222.
Matching grants are when a VP's own revenue is equally matched by a government grant. An example of the Malar VP's inability to mop up revenue is it earned revenues of Rs16,167 as light tax in 2005-06, Rs 14,657 in 2006-07 and Rs10,159 in2007-08. During these years it did not earn revenue from trade tax and only earned Rs 1200 from signboard tax. There was no revenue earned either from hoarding tax.
Amount of 12th Finance Commission grants: 2005 –Nil,
2006 - Rs94,700, 2007 –Nil, 2008 – Rs2,44,974.
This form of central aid has even exposed the poor overall performance of Goa VPs because annually, these funds have been totally underutilized. For example, the current scheme ends on March 31, 2010 and funds allotted for entire Goa is Rs18 cr. If 70 percent of this is not utilized, and it will not be, according to a source, the fund 'lapses' and Goa will not get additional funding.
House tax collected: 2005-06 - Rs79,806, 2006-07 - Rs79,582, 2007-08 Rs38,591
House tax pending: 2005-06 -Rs67,552, 2006-07 Rs64,227, 2007-08 Rs1,01,893

Expenditure statement

2005 2006-07 2007-08
Administration Rs2,80,852 Rs3,17,476 Rs2,60,615
Public works Rs1,82,455 Rs4,97,541 Rs1,61,748
Sanitation Rs 900 Rs2,12,355 Rs 40,000
Social welfare Rs 5,200 Rs 13,580 Rs 5,100
Education
& Culture Rs 10,018 Rs 11,817 Rs 10,909
Miscellaneous Rs 25,354 Rs 43,274 Rs73,578


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