No-win situation
I have often said ‘if you are one of those who buys into the Goa-is-at-peace bullshit, read our rival. Its news makes you think Goa is a world of Nirvana all the way. If you are troubled (a.k.a concerned) by the Goa around you, read the Herald. Here are some more real time news events to ponder on. In fact these have hardly been written about in the past, at least not in the way it should have made you sit up and your hair stand up. There is this little known egg nest called the Goa State Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation Ltd whose accounts were last finalized in fiscal 2000-01. I can’t tell, but you can bet your last buck that your government has an equally long-winded answer as to why it happened. Perhaps part of the reasons are that for seven consecutive years up to 2007-08 it pumped in equity of Rs 5 lakh, 31.67 lakh, 5 lakh, 5 lakh, 5 lakh, 5 lakh, and 5 lakh respectively. The one with the less rambling name, Goa State Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation Ltd was last audited in 2006-07. But, what you really need to do is walk into these offices and see how hard(ly) your government babus work, i.e.’ if you can get past the small detail of the empty tables and chairs that greet you when you walk in.
Estate Management
Call it a new Special Economic Zone in the making, but the GTDC’s intention (hopefully it won’t fructify or, that the many NGOs and activists will not wait until the eleventh hour to protest) to create ‘better’ infrastructure by inviting ‘Expression of Interest’ from the private industry, hints at just that. Only this might be packaged to look like some friendly neighbourhood infrastructure instead. You know, that usual bull that it will create jobs for Goans (those that didn’t go abroad, but are in queue), da, da, da. But it already gives one a sense of déjà vu. So, let me give you a corresponding case of memory retrieval. Quote from the Audit Report of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India: ‘The Goa Industrial Corporation has been pursuing industrial development on an ad-hoc basis. It did not prepare a perspective plan defining both short term and long term plans for development of industrial infrastructure ….’ The CAG also said ‘The Corporation had not resorted to open invitation for Expression of Interest (EOI) from interested entrepreneurs …;” Allotments were made without any kind of selection process, instead a ‘direct approach system’ was in vogue. Need I say more?
Ad-hocism is the buzzword
How ad-hoc? Trust me, off the cuff won’t even begin to describe the next land scam being cooked up. In the lingua franca of GTDC, it will lease out land to create new infrastructure under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. This could happen next month. In the dialect it used; it also said the government does not want to restrict itself to any infrastructure in particular. Ergo, it wants to let private industry submit bids and only afterwards, will GTDC decide what is best suited for the peoples’ land it unfortunately has become the ruler of. Now, if that does not smack of some intensely sneaky scheming, I don’t know what does.
Worst case scenario
Scenario 1. Based on this open invitation to virtually pick your booty and enjoy, there is no gainsaying that the worst kind or, for that matter even corporates with a brand equity (what’s the difference really?) will not cordon off used tracts of land, and levy an entry fee for whatever entertainment is on offer. And if you have been reading the Herald2day lately, Goans had stopped picnicking in Colva because of the in-your-face domestic tourists who arrive there by the busloads and appropriate the beach. Goans stopped going to Baga nearly a decade ago. They have been prevented from entering the beach at Taleigao and, in fact there are already a few 5-star hotels that did become obstacles for locals wanting to picnic on the beaches where they exist. Scenario 2. Should Goa allow these powerful don’t-give-a-fig-for-the- locals businessmen to take over prime beach land, most of it coming under the CRZ? Especially, when GTDC has itself admitted with amazing candour that it does not know what it wants from the PPA. And, that means it does not know what the Goan tourism industry needs. Remember, the realtors who booked prime land at the Rajiv Gandhi IT Park in Dona Paula?
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
About Me
- lion roars
- Beginning my career with the Goa Today in the late eighties, I wrote for the Marine Times, Sunday Free Press Journal, The Telegraph and Amrita Bazar Patrika before becoming Chief Reporter of the Gomantak Times, that played the biggest role then in getting Speaker Dayaynand Narvekar to resign over a molestation charge. My big break was Special Correspondent for Mid-day in Goa before I moved on to Bangalore to join the Indian Express and later the Pioneer. My next stop was Madras with the Economic Times and later Hyderabad with the same paper. My Hyderabad spell included launching a new daily called AP Times, than joining the Newstime before writing for the Dubai based Gulf News for several years. Hyderabad was where, after a spell writing a column called Lion Roars for the Deccan Chronicle, I wanted out of the rat race and decided to go solo sooner than later because of my genetic makeup and what my newest column Eye Spy that appears in the Gomantak Times Monday's and reproduced here is all about.
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