Goan football’s repulsive side
There is an obnoxious side to Goan football, the most popular game on the planet. This story begins with Churchill Alemao wanting to be president of the Goa Football Association for the term 2010-14. One obstacle he faced was the fact that his brother Joaquim Alemao was the sitting president. How? I’ll explain that in time. Perhaps like Aleixo Sequeira (MLA, Loutolim) he wanted to be elected unopposed.
Although Salcete was the largest voting constituency, he also needed the backing of football clubs in Bardez, Ilhas and Mormugao, to get elected unopposed.
Ironically, real elections to the GFA had resumed in 2007 after a long lull when Churchill’s brother Joaquim won, but his panel didn’t. Earlier, All-India Football Federation’s (AIFF) secretary, Alberto Colaco merely grouped together Joaquim Alemao, Shivanand Salgaocar, and Srinivas Dempo, arrogating to himself the
right of picking the GFA president. In other words they selected, never elected, their surrogate. Result: there was never an election since Savio Messias challenged Vilas Sardessai in 1992, and the thumb rule applied to the yes-men in the GFA’s committee as well.
Lousy legacy
But J. Alemao was leaving behind a weak legacy that his brother Churchill could not afford to inherit. Goa’s soccer clubs, particularly from Bardez were unrelenting over his broken promise to give each club Rs 50,000, which they claimed he had promised in return for votes in 2007. And that is because J. Alemao, the Urban Development Minister failed to get the Sports Ministry which lords over the Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) which was supposed to bankroll his blatant buyoff.
Vengeance is mine
The clubs intended to hit back. They picked their moment when Churchill Alemao held a meeting of Bardez clubs at the Green Park hotel (near the Mapusa by-pass road) in August. There are 40-odd Bardez clubs (42, I think). Typically, Churchill brought along some club representatives (Dionisio Sardinha, John Dias, Lavino Rebello among them) from Salcette and declared in his inimitable style that he would only file his nomination if all the clubs in Goa agreed to elect him unopposed. “The clubs want me to be president. I must be voted unopposed.”
But a stunned Churchill got only rebuttals. “Where is your brother? Where is the Rs 50,000 he promised? What will you promise this time?” The political playfield was suddenly a different ball game. Here was the rough and tumble of a football game. It got more aggressive. “What have you done for football? Why are you Minister for PWD and not Minister for Sports? 'What happened to the promised lighting at Fatorda?' "Why hasn’t Panjim got a ground yet?”
The meeting ended with some club representatives walking out in protest. Churchill Alemao realized he had been shown the red card. The defense against him was impenetrable; therefore he decided not to contest despite his great ambition to become president. The Fatorda stadium lighting project valued at nearly Rs 6 cr is stuck with Churchill Alemao, in his capacity as PWD Minister. Specialists in the business say it can be done for less than one sixth of that amount.
The Duler stadium floodlight projects officially promoted by J. Alemao is de facto obstructed by him as the Urban Planning Minister (the project is to be implemented by the Mapusa Municipality which is under his ministry).
Dark horse
This is when the Colaco group panicked and pushed forward the candidature of Srinivas Dempo, always reluctant to become president, and content with playing a supporting role. With Colaco due to retire on September 30, 2010 as the AIFF’s Delhi-based paid general secretary, he would have to be benched on his return to Goa. But he could be made the new GFA general secretary. With the incumbent,
Messias, due to retire on October 25, 2010, the post was being transformed from that of honorary to professional. It was to be a paid job and Colaco’s AIFF experience was the end result of a well-thought out tactical plan.
The new term is for 2010-2014. It was a shoe-in – a winner all the way, because Colaco intended to be the force behind Dempo, the reluctant GFA office bearer. Dempo was elected, or rather, selected member of the GFA twice, was VP for four years, but the only GFA meeting he ever attended was on September 15, 2010.
Rumours had it that he and four other GFA members including J. Alemao would be disqualified for failing to attend four consecutive executive committee meetings. Under ordinary circumstances they ought to have been disqualified a long time ago. The issue was raised in fact at the last general body but J. Alemao’s limp apology was that his ministerial and political duties took preference over GFA.
Possession game
Except for 2007 when true elections were held, the group marshaled by Colaco has always kept possession of the ball so to speak – to the extent of forming a panel to contest. This is in direct conflict with the GFA constitution which says a president must be elected in his individual capacity. Confident that J. Alemao would contest again, Messias filed his nomination papers. So did Peter Vaz.
In 2007 J. Alemao asked Vaz to support his candidature because the president’s post is as per convention rotated between Goa’s four big clubs. The contest suddenly got rougher. Messias has had turf battles with both Colaco and J. Alemao but not with Vaz. But J. Alemao’s broken promise was like an own goal, it eliminated both brothers from the contest.
Messias knew he couldn’t win and would only damage Vaz’ chances. So, they are believed to have come to an understanding. Messias would withdraw his nomination, but as he would be left with nothing, he filed his papers for the post of member, Mormugao zone. The zone had three candidates for three posts available. It was game on here too.
At this point Churchill Alemao began scheming as only he can. Wary of how clubs voted in 2007, when Joaquim Alemao was voted in but not his panel. The buzz in the clubs was that he ordered clubs loyal to him to carry their mobiles in and photograph their ticked ballot papers as proof. I am not making this up but the villain in the piece all along was Chief Minister Digambar Kamat who kept wheedling with the key players in government like a good captain would.
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Consultancy, the money-spinner
The Ghost Who Walks
The contract for the colossal new Collectorate building being built at Margao was tendered in December 2007 at a cost of Rs 73,46,34,449. It won’t be ready in June 2010 as scheduled but in December and the cost has already escalated to Rs 77.50 cr which was expected. In fact, already the next projected cost is Rs 93 cr. It will soar (to Rs 100 cr perhaps?) and will go down as the most expensive ever built in Goa. And for what realistic purpose was it built? So that some government babu can harass you even more as you blunder from one floor to another looking for the chap who just stepped out for his umpteenth cup of chai? The government won’t give a Panchayat the talathi it deserves but it will blow Rs 100 cr on a new Collectorate building. A case in point is the Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim Village Panchayat’s talathi who also holds charge of the Velsao-Pale-Issorcim VP which means he comes to work only Mondays and Thursdays at Velsao. Because the Boss Man, the Mamlatdar of Mormugo, wants him there at Vasco da Gama, his base station, every now and then, the poor chap has become like The Phantom -The Ghost Who Walks; for no fault of his. In this case the government gets really mean. To make you go through the pain of a FI&IXV, it divided the three villages of Velsao VP between two Mamlatdars. Yes, there is a Mamlatdar and two joint Mamlatdars. Machiavellian? I thought so too.
Consultancy, the money spinner
1) The cost of civil works including plumbing, fire fighting and internal electrical works (at the Rs 93 cr level) is an estimated Rs 73,46,34,449 and the consultancy fee (i.e architectural and project management consultancy) is Rs 4,02,57,968.
2) The external electrical work will cost Rs 2,11,49,474 and the consultancy fee is Rs 11,58,991.
3) The cost of the internal, external and special lighting fixtures is Rs 74,40,000 and strange but true, the consultancy fee is Rs 4,07,712. In other words the consultancy fee for items 2& 3, both electrical jobs, itself works out to Rs 15,66,703 plus there already is an unknown consultancy fee for internal electrical works factored into item 1 (see above).
4) The elevator work will cost Rs 2,77,00,000 and the consultancy fee is Rs 15,17,960.
5) Air-conditioning the complex will cost Rs 1,93,02,803 and the consultancy fee is Rs 10,57,794.
6) The cost of the telephone exchange and UPS will be Rs 1,33,40,845 and believe it or not the consultancy fee is Rs 7,31,078.
7) The audio visual equipments for the conference room and AV room will cost Rs 44,00,000 and the consultancy fee for this is Rs 2,41,120.
8) The furniture will cost Rs 5,23,29,550 and lo and behold the consultancy fee for this is Rs 28,67,659.
9) There is a miscellaneous cost of Rs 2,32,000 and mercifully they didn’t need a consultant to tell them that. The magic figure at this moment is Rs 92,87,69,403 and the dice is still being rolled.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
You have by now begun to understand the current Cabinet’s compulsive obsession for big buildings and decided to live with it. That much is clear. But it boggles the mind when in a total cost of Rs 88,05,29,121 the consultancy fee works out Rs 4,82,40,282 and is growing. Now figure out the maintenance and other support costs of this monolith and notch that up as one more record that will be set by Goa’s most expensive building yet. And in your village meanwhile the streetlights don’t work, the narrow village roads are potholed, you are forced to buy your own expensive UPS because the power supply is as inconsistent as the figures above. Worse, you won’t be invited to the gala opening of the Collectorate knowing well that will also cost you a small fortune. And in villages a few people continue to clean up the beaches which hordes of domestic tourists dirty for the good of the tourism industry. And yet on September 21, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat flew all the way to Delhi with a delegation to convince the Information & Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni not to pull the rug from under the Entertainment Society of Goa. Her ministry wants to reduce the Entertainment Society of Goa’s role in hosting this year’s International Film Festival of India for all the right reasons. But the Goa government can’t have that, can it, considering its other obsession is IFFI; and all the tax-free perks of a good life that go with organizing it? Proof of its fascination is in the very timing of his visit, made when Delhi was in a flap over Jammu & Kashmir under its worse siege ever and the Commonwealth Games about to go kaput. Life goes on.
Battle of the Bulge
The Navy’s growing a belly. You wouldn’t expect the Navy to get the acquisition bug too. A long time ago, the Navy locked down the old road to popular Bogmolo beach. It really hurt because you could cycle down to Bogmolo from Vasco da Gama. It was all done for a sacred cause, blah, blah. All the while, the Navy only employed more men and lost more aircraft, nothing else. The Navy is now going to acquire over 30 lakh sq mt including the traditional Bhimvel beach. The excuse this time is the fear terrorists might strike at aircraft from the islands which are to be acquired. Why not patrol the St. George islands from the seaside and maintain a land-based force equipped with night vision and whatever it takes? That would make everyone happy. I could point out a few thousand shanty homes in Zuarinagar where terrorists could launch shoulder- fired missiles, a high-rise hotel in Bogmolo with a gallery view of flying aircraft plus 5-star comfort, and a few hundred safe havens in Vasco da Gama to set up base. Why use the difficult island option when you can do your dirty work from the safety of land? In fact Vascoites have expressed fears that if the fuel storage tanks in the town containing millions of litres of fuel are blown up, there would be no Vasco and no Mormugao Port, and no Goa Shipyard which ironically builds only naval ships. But who cares?
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164
The contract for the colossal new Collectorate building being built at Margao was tendered in December 2007 at a cost of Rs 73,46,34,449. It won’t be ready in June 2010 as scheduled but in December and the cost has already escalated to Rs 77.50 cr which was expected. In fact, already the next projected cost is Rs 93 cr. It will soar (to Rs 100 cr perhaps?) and will go down as the most expensive ever built in Goa. And for what realistic purpose was it built? So that some government babu can harass you even more as you blunder from one floor to another looking for the chap who just stepped out for his umpteenth cup of chai? The government won’t give a Panchayat the talathi it deserves but it will blow Rs 100 cr on a new Collectorate building. A case in point is the Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim Village Panchayat’s talathi who also holds charge of the Velsao-Pale-Issorcim VP which means he comes to work only Mondays and Thursdays at Velsao. Because the Boss Man, the Mamlatdar of Mormugo, wants him there at Vasco da Gama, his base station, every now and then, the poor chap has become like The Phantom -The Ghost Who Walks; for no fault of his. In this case the government gets really mean. To make you go through the pain of a FI&IXV, it divided the three villages of Velsao VP between two Mamlatdars. Yes, there is a Mamlatdar and two joint Mamlatdars. Machiavellian? I thought so too.
Consultancy, the money spinner
1) The cost of civil works including plumbing, fire fighting and internal electrical works (at the Rs 93 cr level) is an estimated Rs 73,46,34,449 and the consultancy fee (i.e architectural and project management consultancy) is Rs 4,02,57,968.
2) The external electrical work will cost Rs 2,11,49,474 and the consultancy fee is Rs 11,58,991.
3) The cost of the internal, external and special lighting fixtures is Rs 74,40,000 and strange but true, the consultancy fee is Rs 4,07,712. In other words the consultancy fee for items 2& 3, both electrical jobs, itself works out to Rs 15,66,703 plus there already is an unknown consultancy fee for internal electrical works factored into item 1 (see above).
4) The elevator work will cost Rs 2,77,00,000 and the consultancy fee is Rs 15,17,960.
5) Air-conditioning the complex will cost Rs 1,93,02,803 and the consultancy fee is Rs 10,57,794.
6) The cost of the telephone exchange and UPS will be Rs 1,33,40,845 and believe it or not the consultancy fee is Rs 7,31,078.
7) The audio visual equipments for the conference room and AV room will cost Rs 44,00,000 and the consultancy fee for this is Rs 2,41,120.
8) The furniture will cost Rs 5,23,29,550 and lo and behold the consultancy fee for this is Rs 28,67,659.
9) There is a miscellaneous cost of Rs 2,32,000 and mercifully they didn’t need a consultant to tell them that. The magic figure at this moment is Rs 92,87,69,403 and the dice is still being rolled.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
You have by now begun to understand the current Cabinet’s compulsive obsession for big buildings and decided to live with it. That much is clear. But it boggles the mind when in a total cost of Rs 88,05,29,121 the consultancy fee works out Rs 4,82,40,282 and is growing. Now figure out the maintenance and other support costs of this monolith and notch that up as one more record that will be set by Goa’s most expensive building yet. And in your village meanwhile the streetlights don’t work, the narrow village roads are potholed, you are forced to buy your own expensive UPS because the power supply is as inconsistent as the figures above. Worse, you won’t be invited to the gala opening of the Collectorate knowing well that will also cost you a small fortune. And in villages a few people continue to clean up the beaches which hordes of domestic tourists dirty for the good of the tourism industry. And yet on September 21, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat flew all the way to Delhi with a delegation to convince the Information & Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni not to pull the rug from under the Entertainment Society of Goa. Her ministry wants to reduce the Entertainment Society of Goa’s role in hosting this year’s International Film Festival of India for all the right reasons. But the Goa government can’t have that, can it, considering its other obsession is IFFI; and all the tax-free perks of a good life that go with organizing it? Proof of its fascination is in the very timing of his visit, made when Delhi was in a flap over Jammu & Kashmir under its worse siege ever and the Commonwealth Games about to go kaput. Life goes on.
Battle of the Bulge
The Navy’s growing a belly. You wouldn’t expect the Navy to get the acquisition bug too. A long time ago, the Navy locked down the old road to popular Bogmolo beach. It really hurt because you could cycle down to Bogmolo from Vasco da Gama. It was all done for a sacred cause, blah, blah. All the while, the Navy only employed more men and lost more aircraft, nothing else. The Navy is now going to acquire over 30 lakh sq mt including the traditional Bhimvel beach. The excuse this time is the fear terrorists might strike at aircraft from the islands which are to be acquired. Why not patrol the St. George islands from the seaside and maintain a land-based force equipped with night vision and whatever it takes? That would make everyone happy. I could point out a few thousand shanty homes in Zuarinagar where terrorists could launch shoulder- fired missiles, a high-rise hotel in Bogmolo with a gallery view of flying aircraft plus 5-star comfort, and a few hundred safe havens in Vasco da Gama to set up base. Why use the difficult island option when you can do your dirty work from the safety of land? In fact Vascoites have expressed fears that if the fuel storage tanks in the town containing millions of litres of fuel are blown up, there would be no Vasco and no Mormugao Port, and no Goa Shipyard which ironically builds only naval ships. But who cares?
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Only in Goa
Miss Moneypenny flows
It rained this year more than even Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, could have predicted even if he could be accused of shooting off yet another set of rigged up figures on climate change. In case, you’ve missed this – even global warming has had its unfair share of contradictions, around the world. But then if you are Indian today and doing well in A-broad, and it so happened that you were Rajendra Pachauri, the UN’s bureaucrat with a bee in his bonnet, you can be accused of anything especially if the accuser is a Brit leading newspaper and is called the ‘The Telegraph’. What you don’t know is that it rained in somebody else’s pocket (or many pockets for that matter) like rain water gushing through storm water drains. You could say, the rainfall was straight from the Mint for those with pockets like funnels, wide and channeled directly into some bank account. Either that or the mountains of mining rejects are getting the better of all the government’s feeble attempts to keep Bicholim from going under. My point being, then why waste money if the problem cannot be solved. It happened in Bicholim where Rs 8.84 crores was spent to desilt the Bicholim river which again this year took its wrath out on the residents of Bicholim town especially the Bandirwada and Gaonkarwada areas. Undertaken by the Water Resources Department, the flood control project was supposed to have been accomplished in three ways. 1. Improvement of waterway to Bicholim river from Kudchire to L.I.S Scheme, Vathadev –tendered to Pan Constructions. 2. Improvement to waterways from L.I.S Scheme to Dhabdhaba – tendered to Noorudheen Construction Pvt. Ltd. 3. Improvement of waterways from Dhabdhaba to Bagwada Pilgao – tendered to Apollo Engineers & Contractors Pvt. Ltd.
Diamonds Are Forever
Is a group of retired government babus trying to emulate Sachin Tendulkar who is never going to retire since he can pick and choose where to play? Or is it that a cabinet-full of selectors just want them to bat on, and on. The Chief Minister Digambar Kamat hired RA Verlekar as his officer on special duty. His age as you read this is 67 years and eleven months to be precise. His under secretary, Amrut Gaonkar is 64 years and ten months. He hired Jagdish Kalangutkar as section officer. His age as you read this is 60 years and four months, but that could be considered younger. Eight of his ministers all have OSD’s (doesn’t that sound like some kind of James Bond adaptation) over the age of sixty years. Licence to Kill or not, Joaquim Alemao’s Man Friday is 68 years and two months old. More power to their guns, but what I don’t understand is the government continuing to pay them a hefty pension because pension deductions are being made from their monthly salaries. BTW, Mickey Pacheco and his Man Friday split after many years of Bonding together. Turned out as Mickey says that while he was manning the cash counters, his Man Friday was on special duty secret assignments of the asset accumulation kind. There is a guestimated Rs 3-5 crore missing from the cash till and none of that I am told went overseas if you get my drift. It’s all here, in Goa, in hard real estate. What was that you said about two sides of the same coin?
Dr. No(Goan)
No silly, this has nothing to do with the Commissioner for NRI Affairs Eduardo Faleiro’s, project (the third edition) of bringing well-heeled Goans settled abroad on a holiday to Goa this November-December. This is about non-Goans employed as doctors in the Goa Medical College (GMC). Call it a limited edition. You thought doctors (lawyers too) was about the only career Goans choose and become. You were right. So, explain this then. How the GMC employed 66 non-Goan doctors till July 2010 and counting. In 2008 it hired 14 doctors. In the two months May-June, 2009 GMC hired 19 (of the 66) doctors and two more in December 2009. In 2010 five doctors were hired. The Goa Dental College & Hospital has 13 non-Goan doctors on its rolls. So, now we don’t have dentists too. You wish those Goan Diaspora holidaying here will get their teeth into this? I do too. The Goa College of Pharmacy has two. They were hired in 2009 and 2010 as lecturers. The Institute of Psychiatry & Human Behaviour rehired two clinical pathologists after they retired in 2005.
For Your Eyes Only
The Goa Barge Owners Association (GBOA) president Atul Jadav is going around telling any newspaper that listens that Goa is in dire need of a maritime industrial estate. Inevitably, the case of the Dubai Maritime City was cited as evidence without the corollary of course, that abroad there is definite transparency and definitive law. It pissed off the Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira who called up Jadav. Thing is GBOA wants the government to acquire five lakh sq mts at Bhoma near the Cumbarjua canal. Blunder 1. He was cocksure that the new environment would be protected but agreed the present repair yards are polluting. Blunder 2. Is there a plan here because we have elected MLAs (four) who are barge owners among other business interests they have. Barge owners have themselves told me in the past that the playing field is getting crowded by the entry of outsiders with black money to burn. The barge business gives a huge opportunity. They complain about the China market cooling down. When business has been bad they simply took their barges to ports in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and even faraway Andhra Pradesh. In fact the barge business has evolved over decades from WWII Land Craft Vessels converted into barges to jumboization of barges in the 80’s, cutting them into halves and extending their size. To the huge 2,000-3,000 tonners of now. But the sheen is wearing off. There aren’t any big fleet owners to buy the 100 size 4,000 sq. mt plots envisaged in the maritime industrial estate.
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
It rained this year more than even Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, could have predicted even if he could be accused of shooting off yet another set of rigged up figures on climate change. In case, you’ve missed this – even global warming has had its unfair share of contradictions, around the world. But then if you are Indian today and doing well in A-broad, and it so happened that you were Rajendra Pachauri, the UN’s bureaucrat with a bee in his bonnet, you can be accused of anything especially if the accuser is a Brit leading newspaper and is called the ‘The Telegraph’. What you don’t know is that it rained in somebody else’s pocket (or many pockets for that matter) like rain water gushing through storm water drains. You could say, the rainfall was straight from the Mint for those with pockets like funnels, wide and channeled directly into some bank account. Either that or the mountains of mining rejects are getting the better of all the government’s feeble attempts to keep Bicholim from going under. My point being, then why waste money if the problem cannot be solved. It happened in Bicholim where Rs 8.84 crores was spent to desilt the Bicholim river which again this year took its wrath out on the residents of Bicholim town especially the Bandirwada and Gaonkarwada areas. Undertaken by the Water Resources Department, the flood control project was supposed to have been accomplished in three ways. 1. Improvement of waterway to Bicholim river from Kudchire to L.I.S Scheme, Vathadev –tendered to Pan Constructions. 2. Improvement to waterways from L.I.S Scheme to Dhabdhaba – tendered to Noorudheen Construction Pvt. Ltd. 3. Improvement of waterways from Dhabdhaba to Bagwada Pilgao – tendered to Apollo Engineers & Contractors Pvt. Ltd.
Diamonds Are Forever
Is a group of retired government babus trying to emulate Sachin Tendulkar who is never going to retire since he can pick and choose where to play? Or is it that a cabinet-full of selectors just want them to bat on, and on. The Chief Minister Digambar Kamat hired RA Verlekar as his officer on special duty. His age as you read this is 67 years and eleven months to be precise. His under secretary, Amrut Gaonkar is 64 years and ten months. He hired Jagdish Kalangutkar as section officer. His age as you read this is 60 years and four months, but that could be considered younger. Eight of his ministers all have OSD’s (doesn’t that sound like some kind of James Bond adaptation) over the age of sixty years. Licence to Kill or not, Joaquim Alemao’s Man Friday is 68 years and two months old. More power to their guns, but what I don’t understand is the government continuing to pay them a hefty pension because pension deductions are being made from their monthly salaries. BTW, Mickey Pacheco and his Man Friday split after many years of Bonding together. Turned out as Mickey says that while he was manning the cash counters, his Man Friday was on special duty secret assignments of the asset accumulation kind. There is a guestimated Rs 3-5 crore missing from the cash till and none of that I am told went overseas if you get my drift. It’s all here, in Goa, in hard real estate. What was that you said about two sides of the same coin?
Dr. No(Goan)
No silly, this has nothing to do with the Commissioner for NRI Affairs Eduardo Faleiro’s, project (the third edition) of bringing well-heeled Goans settled abroad on a holiday to Goa this November-December. This is about non-Goans employed as doctors in the Goa Medical College (GMC). Call it a limited edition. You thought doctors (lawyers too) was about the only career Goans choose and become. You were right. So, explain this then. How the GMC employed 66 non-Goan doctors till July 2010 and counting. In 2008 it hired 14 doctors. In the two months May-June, 2009 GMC hired 19 (of the 66) doctors and two more in December 2009. In 2010 five doctors were hired. The Goa Dental College & Hospital has 13 non-Goan doctors on its rolls. So, now we don’t have dentists too. You wish those Goan Diaspora holidaying here will get their teeth into this? I do too. The Goa College of Pharmacy has two. They were hired in 2009 and 2010 as lecturers. The Institute of Psychiatry & Human Behaviour rehired two clinical pathologists after they retired in 2005.
For Your Eyes Only
The Goa Barge Owners Association (GBOA) president Atul Jadav is going around telling any newspaper that listens that Goa is in dire need of a maritime industrial estate. Inevitably, the case of the Dubai Maritime City was cited as evidence without the corollary of course, that abroad there is definite transparency and definitive law. It pissed off the Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira who called up Jadav. Thing is GBOA wants the government to acquire five lakh sq mts at Bhoma near the Cumbarjua canal. Blunder 1. He was cocksure that the new environment would be protected but agreed the present repair yards are polluting. Blunder 2. Is there a plan here because we have elected MLAs (four) who are barge owners among other business interests they have. Barge owners have themselves told me in the past that the playing field is getting crowded by the entry of outsiders with black money to burn. The barge business gives a huge opportunity. They complain about the China market cooling down. When business has been bad they simply took their barges to ports in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and even faraway Andhra Pradesh. In fact the barge business has evolved over decades from WWII Land Craft Vessels converted into barges to jumboization of barges in the 80’s, cutting them into halves and extending their size. To the huge 2,000-3,000 tonners of now. But the sheen is wearing off. There aren’t any big fleet owners to buy the 100 size 4,000 sq. mt plots envisaged in the maritime industrial estate.
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Goascam
Marketing of a scam
This is how it’s done in scamgoa.com. First get the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) to build something as big as is possible, like the Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP) market. For a size guestimate, look at the Ravindra Bhavan being built on the Verna-Dabolim bypass which you might have easily, as you passed by, thought was an indoor stadium. It’s so large, it literally breaks the skyline as you drive by. The GSIDC comes under the Minister for Urban Development Joaquim Alemao, so nothing goes suburban, if you get my drift. Everything stays in-house and nobody knows nothing, though we’ll get to that one day. When that happens, put it down as the mother of all scams.
For now we are concerned with scam No. 1 which began when the CCP’s councilors began to take “operational control” of the market complex. Now if you want a career as a thieving scoundrel then take note of the words ‘operational control’ because my friend, it will help you one day. Although I think quite a few Goan families practice it to the hilt. And just in case you pretend not to know, I am talking about yes, division of family property. Point is, it appears till date that no official allotment of the hundreds of shops and stalls was done from the first phase in 2003 till now. It’s possible that some councilors succeeded in ‘allotting’ some shops either to themselves or to their relatives. For the record, 37 shops with double height were built in phase I on the ground floor. Seventy-seven shops with single height were built on the ground floor in phase II, 446 platform spaces were built on the ground floor and 344 stalls built on the first floor. They are all occupied, yet no official allotment has been made! The scam is being investigated since July 2010 and the results if properly investigated by the CCP Commissioner should make Fox Crime (the channel) look amateur. Problem is, so far the CCP has come out with two reports, dated March 3 and July 9, 2010.
Mayoral Pleasure
Between July-August 2003, 52 ‘persons’ are said to have illegally occupied shops when Sanjit Rodrigues was the Commissioner and Ashok Naik the Mayor (May 4, 2003-July 17, 2004). They simply walked in and took over 37 shops of double height each with a carpet area of 18 sq.mt, and 15 other smaller-sized shops. Nobody knows how, but it happened despite GSIDC having a detailed official record of the occupants prior to the demolition (of the old market) matched with the shops/stalls they were to be allotted. The CCP has no record either of rents fixed or collected. It happens in Goa and happened again after phase II was completed and inaugurated in January 2007. This time around (between June 20, 2006-January 21, 2007) when Daulat Hawaldar was the Commissioner and Tony Rodrigues the Mayor, 62 shops were occupied. The CCP called it “occupational control”. A further 446 platform spaces were occupied by what the CCP described in its report as “different types of vendors.” The second CCP report said “the official roll was missing and the Mayor and a few councilors monitored shifting of the vendors and allotment of spaces.” It added: “Again, no record is available on the shifting of these vendors in the 2nd phase”. Now, try doing this anywhere in Goa, unless of course you are a migrant especially in Sancoale or chimbel, and believe me you will get your butt hauled to court.
Vendor’s rock
While India’s elite walk miles to get rid of their bulbous bellies, the poor walk miles just to get food. And so it is. At Panjim’s market, vendors’ rock and roll as happened again in January 2008, this time when Sanjiv Gadkar was the Commissioner or should I say Commissar and Tony Rodrigues continued to be the Mayor. This time, 344 stalls were ‘occupied’ and the report said, “this occupation took place, sans administrative intervention, directly under the supervision of the Mayor and some councilors”. Seriously, now at least do you see what I meant by ‘occupational control’. I was only trying to help. The report added: “In the light of what is stated, it will be improper for the present Commissioner (Elvis Gomes) to go into the roles of the above named, and if desired, the government may initiate a proper inquiry to be conducted by an independent authority to go into the entire issue”. A classic example of obfuscation made only in Goa and is tax free.
So, the next time you shop at the market, bargain like hell. Remember, the man/woman conning you has not paid rent, does not have a lease agreement and is using hardware (to make money) paid for by you. OK, so you need a booster shot? It could even ban you from the Commonwealth Games, if it takes place that is, and if you are suddenly accosted with a drug test. This is it. Huge bills amounting to Rs 12,06,952 and Rs 62,20,833 towards unpaid water and electricity consumption have piled up and continue climbing up as are the prices of the vegetables you are buying. Ditto for maintenance and repair costs. In fact bargain real hard on tomatoes especially, they contain the maximium (and cheapest in the market) antioxidants (glutathione) you need to clean up your insides from the heartburn of being a tax payer in Goa. There’s tea of course, but use that to calm your nerves. But again, you are Goan, nothing will have an effect on you. What a life!
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
This is how it’s done in scamgoa.com. First get the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) to build something as big as is possible, like the Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP) market. For a size guestimate, look at the Ravindra Bhavan being built on the Verna-Dabolim bypass which you might have easily, as you passed by, thought was an indoor stadium. It’s so large, it literally breaks the skyline as you drive by. The GSIDC comes under the Minister for Urban Development Joaquim Alemao, so nothing goes suburban, if you get my drift. Everything stays in-house and nobody knows nothing, though we’ll get to that one day. When that happens, put it down as the mother of all scams.
For now we are concerned with scam No. 1 which began when the CCP’s councilors began to take “operational control” of the market complex. Now if you want a career as a thieving scoundrel then take note of the words ‘operational control’ because my friend, it will help you one day. Although I think quite a few Goan families practice it to the hilt. And just in case you pretend not to know, I am talking about yes, division of family property. Point is, it appears till date that no official allotment of the hundreds of shops and stalls was done from the first phase in 2003 till now. It’s possible that some councilors succeeded in ‘allotting’ some shops either to themselves or to their relatives. For the record, 37 shops with double height were built in phase I on the ground floor. Seventy-seven shops with single height were built on the ground floor in phase II, 446 platform spaces were built on the ground floor and 344 stalls built on the first floor. They are all occupied, yet no official allotment has been made! The scam is being investigated since July 2010 and the results if properly investigated by the CCP Commissioner should make Fox Crime (the channel) look amateur. Problem is, so far the CCP has come out with two reports, dated March 3 and July 9, 2010.
Mayoral Pleasure
Between July-August 2003, 52 ‘persons’ are said to have illegally occupied shops when Sanjit Rodrigues was the Commissioner and Ashok Naik the Mayor (May 4, 2003-July 17, 2004). They simply walked in and took over 37 shops of double height each with a carpet area of 18 sq.mt, and 15 other smaller-sized shops. Nobody knows how, but it happened despite GSIDC having a detailed official record of the occupants prior to the demolition (of the old market) matched with the shops/stalls they were to be allotted. The CCP has no record either of rents fixed or collected. It happens in Goa and happened again after phase II was completed and inaugurated in January 2007. This time around (between June 20, 2006-January 21, 2007) when Daulat Hawaldar was the Commissioner and Tony Rodrigues the Mayor, 62 shops were occupied. The CCP called it “occupational control”. A further 446 platform spaces were occupied by what the CCP described in its report as “different types of vendors.” The second CCP report said “the official roll was missing and the Mayor and a few councilors monitored shifting of the vendors and allotment of spaces.” It added: “Again, no record is available on the shifting of these vendors in the 2nd phase”. Now, try doing this anywhere in Goa, unless of course you are a migrant especially in Sancoale or chimbel, and believe me you will get your butt hauled to court.
Vendor’s rock
While India’s elite walk miles to get rid of their bulbous bellies, the poor walk miles just to get food. And so it is. At Panjim’s market, vendors’ rock and roll as happened again in January 2008, this time when Sanjiv Gadkar was the Commissioner or should I say Commissar and Tony Rodrigues continued to be the Mayor. This time, 344 stalls were ‘occupied’ and the report said, “this occupation took place, sans administrative intervention, directly under the supervision of the Mayor and some councilors”. Seriously, now at least do you see what I meant by ‘occupational control’. I was only trying to help. The report added: “In the light of what is stated, it will be improper for the present Commissioner (Elvis Gomes) to go into the roles of the above named, and if desired, the government may initiate a proper inquiry to be conducted by an independent authority to go into the entire issue”. A classic example of obfuscation made only in Goa and is tax free.
So, the next time you shop at the market, bargain like hell. Remember, the man/woman conning you has not paid rent, does not have a lease agreement and is using hardware (to make money) paid for by you. OK, so you need a booster shot? It could even ban you from the Commonwealth Games, if it takes place that is, and if you are suddenly accosted with a drug test. This is it. Huge bills amounting to Rs 12,06,952 and Rs 62,20,833 towards unpaid water and electricity consumption have piled up and continue climbing up as are the prices of the vegetables you are buying. Ditto for maintenance and repair costs. In fact bargain real hard on tomatoes especially, they contain the maximium (and cheapest in the market) antioxidants (glutathione) you need to clean up your insides from the heartburn of being a tax payer in Goa. There’s tea of course, but use that to calm your nerves. But again, you are Goan, nothing will have an effect on you. What a life!
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Polluters do not pay
Sheriff of Nottingham
Phew, I got tired of the number crunching the last two weeks, so I am going to give us all a respite. I’m just yanking your chain. Sorry, doesn’t happen that way by a long shot. But you know what, when you all wake up from your deep-seated sleep, then maybe we can at least stop the politician at the door, if not shut the door on him. Till then here’s another adrenalin rush. The Sheriff of Nottingham otherwise known as Filipe Neri Rodrigues, the Forest Minister. called another meeting of the Goa State Board for Wildlife that has now come to be virtually an annual affair. The August 25 meet, it turned out, was destined to miss out on crucial issues at hand. Last year, at a similar meet, a tiger enclosure for Bondla was shoved into the faces of all those who attended on the day of the meeting itself. This meet was concerned only with the Goa Forest Development’s intent to tie up with Southern River Adventures & Sports Pvt. Ltd. Now, anything that happens in Goa is through the back door, or through a window left ajar. Never the front door.
Pity the Madhei river
The people living in a 15 km stretch of river from Codal on the northern tributary of the Mhadei which joins the eastern tributary coming from Krishnapur and ending at Sonal, will if this plan is followed through, be the next recipients of a whole slew of irritants including roughnecks who will mix the effervescence of booze with the froth of white water rafting. That, of course in the name of tourism and who gives a crap what you and I think. This is how the Sheriff of Nottingham looks at it, and I quote the actual minutes of the meet: “This stretch of river offers stunning scenery, many exciting rapids (approx. 30) and is perhaps the most challenging than any other rafting section in South India. As in Dandeli, the Mhadei section runs through the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, though at no point of time will forest be touched enroute to any place. It is only the waters which will be used with both the start (Codal-Derodem bridge) and finish point (Sonal) out of the sanctuary limits.” They said that of the sand dunes, remember; of the beaches, of public access to beaches, of the River Princess (the salvage, that is), of IFFI (International Film Festival of India), of SEZs (Special Economic Zones), of, of ……..; all those were pushed through, delete that, bulldozed over you because they were supposed to be good for you. Look what happened. No dunes, 5-star hotels where depleting beaches stood, an iffy IFFI, a stranded Princess and SEZs entangled in lawsuits.
Will Dudhsagar fall?
A board member Tribolo D’Souza raised the issue again of freeing the limit on the number (98) of vehicles permitted to take tourists to Dudhsagar falls. I am told he does this as ritualistically as the monsoons falling over the Western Ghats. The limit was rightly imposed to protect the area which is part of the Bhagwan Mahavir National Park. Now, apart from being a pal of a pal of the Sheriff of Nottingham, D’Souza owns taxis and has a restaurant there. What more can I say? In fact, the entire approach to the 4/6 laning of NH4A which was on the agenda, was how should I say, as wanting as the Board’s will to protect wildlife.
The ‘Kala’ of money
This government has a compulsive obsession with building Ravindra Bhavans and Kala Bhavans. Its stated policy is that these edifices are built when people want them, only then. Since you and I have not gone stark raving mad yet despite all that happens around us, we know that’s not true. And culture vultures we are not. The things we want, we don’t get, garbage clearance being just one in a growing list of To Do’s. For many senior citizens these wishes must have gone into their Bucket List. The government had approved Ravindra Bhavans/mini Kala Bhavans for Sanquelim, Mormugao, Pernem, Mapusa, Canacona and Valpoi. Which means your wish list won’t fructify even into the next decade. Because all your tax bucks are poured like concrete into making Goa a haven for bhavans. The score so far; the Ravindra Bhavan at Curchorem, the Rajiv Gandhi Kala Mandir at Ponda and the Ravindra Bhavan at Margao have been constructed. The Ravindra Bhavan at Sanquelim and the Ravindra Bhavan at Baina in Vasco da Gama and the Ravindra Bhavan on the Verna-Dabolim bypass are under construction.
…And it’s Green
The cost of the newly installed sound system at the Ravindra Bhavan in Margao is believe it or not Rs 54,95,692. With that money, the entire village you live in could have been beautified for posterity. Bad news, I know. It gets worse. The amount spent on the old sound system was Rs 24,06,325. That’s Rs 79,02,017 only to make loud sounds. It cost you and I Rs 38,52,800 to replace the chairs. The total cost on capital expenditure incurred till this year was Rs 25,63,74,861. The cost of maintenance incurred since its inauguration was Rs 26,93,537. And I am told you could get your doctorate if you investigated the repairs that have been carried out to the south west walls and the ceiling of the foyer area of the main building. When last heard of, the PWD was asked to recover the cost of the work from the contractor. Add that to your thesis. Yes, it’s that same PWD that can’t get its contractors to build decent roads. Finally, to add insult to your injury be advised that the Margao bhavan was partly constructed on Communidade land that was acquired by the government probably for peanuts. And the winner is the Chief Minister who is also the Minister for Art & Culture, Digambar Kamat.
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Phew, I got tired of the number crunching the last two weeks, so I am going to give us all a respite. I’m just yanking your chain. Sorry, doesn’t happen that way by a long shot. But you know what, when you all wake up from your deep-seated sleep, then maybe we can at least stop the politician at the door, if not shut the door on him. Till then here’s another adrenalin rush. The Sheriff of Nottingham otherwise known as Filipe Neri Rodrigues, the Forest Minister. called another meeting of the Goa State Board for Wildlife that has now come to be virtually an annual affair. The August 25 meet, it turned out, was destined to miss out on crucial issues at hand. Last year, at a similar meet, a tiger enclosure for Bondla was shoved into the faces of all those who attended on the day of the meeting itself. This meet was concerned only with the Goa Forest Development’s intent to tie up with Southern River Adventures & Sports Pvt. Ltd. Now, anything that happens in Goa is through the back door, or through a window left ajar. Never the front door.
Pity the Madhei river
The people living in a 15 km stretch of river from Codal on the northern tributary of the Mhadei which joins the eastern tributary coming from Krishnapur and ending at Sonal, will if this plan is followed through, be the next recipients of a whole slew of irritants including roughnecks who will mix the effervescence of booze with the froth of white water rafting. That, of course in the name of tourism and who gives a crap what you and I think. This is how the Sheriff of Nottingham looks at it, and I quote the actual minutes of the meet: “This stretch of river offers stunning scenery, many exciting rapids (approx. 30) and is perhaps the most challenging than any other rafting section in South India. As in Dandeli, the Mhadei section runs through the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, though at no point of time will forest be touched enroute to any place. It is only the waters which will be used with both the start (Codal-Derodem bridge) and finish point (Sonal) out of the sanctuary limits.” They said that of the sand dunes, remember; of the beaches, of public access to beaches, of the River Princess (the salvage, that is), of IFFI (International Film Festival of India), of SEZs (Special Economic Zones), of, of ……..; all those were pushed through, delete that, bulldozed over you because they were supposed to be good for you. Look what happened. No dunes, 5-star hotels where depleting beaches stood, an iffy IFFI, a stranded Princess and SEZs entangled in lawsuits.
Will Dudhsagar fall?
A board member Tribolo D’Souza raised the issue again of freeing the limit on the number (98) of vehicles permitted to take tourists to Dudhsagar falls. I am told he does this as ritualistically as the monsoons falling over the Western Ghats. The limit was rightly imposed to protect the area which is part of the Bhagwan Mahavir National Park. Now, apart from being a pal of a pal of the Sheriff of Nottingham, D’Souza owns taxis and has a restaurant there. What more can I say? In fact, the entire approach to the 4/6 laning of NH4A which was on the agenda, was how should I say, as wanting as the Board’s will to protect wildlife.
The ‘Kala’ of money
This government has a compulsive obsession with building Ravindra Bhavans and Kala Bhavans. Its stated policy is that these edifices are built when people want them, only then. Since you and I have not gone stark raving mad yet despite all that happens around us, we know that’s not true. And culture vultures we are not. The things we want, we don’t get, garbage clearance being just one in a growing list of To Do’s. For many senior citizens these wishes must have gone into their Bucket List. The government had approved Ravindra Bhavans/mini Kala Bhavans for Sanquelim, Mormugao, Pernem, Mapusa, Canacona and Valpoi. Which means your wish list won’t fructify even into the next decade. Because all your tax bucks are poured like concrete into making Goa a haven for bhavans. The score so far; the Ravindra Bhavan at Curchorem, the Rajiv Gandhi Kala Mandir at Ponda and the Ravindra Bhavan at Margao have been constructed. The Ravindra Bhavan at Sanquelim and the Ravindra Bhavan at Baina in Vasco da Gama and the Ravindra Bhavan on the Verna-Dabolim bypass are under construction.
…And it’s Green
The cost of the newly installed sound system at the Ravindra Bhavan in Margao is believe it or not Rs 54,95,692. With that money, the entire village you live in could have been beautified for posterity. Bad news, I know. It gets worse. The amount spent on the old sound system was Rs 24,06,325. That’s Rs 79,02,017 only to make loud sounds. It cost you and I Rs 38,52,800 to replace the chairs. The total cost on capital expenditure incurred till this year was Rs 25,63,74,861. The cost of maintenance incurred since its inauguration was Rs 26,93,537. And I am told you could get your doctorate if you investigated the repairs that have been carried out to the south west walls and the ceiling of the foyer area of the main building. When last heard of, the PWD was asked to recover the cost of the work from the contractor. Add that to your thesis. Yes, it’s that same PWD that can’t get its contractors to build decent roads. Finally, to add insult to your injury be advised that the Margao bhavan was partly constructed on Communidade land that was acquired by the government probably for peanuts. And the winner is the Chief Minister who is also the Minister for Art & Culture, Digambar Kamat.
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Wining and Dining Faleiro-style
The chosen ones
Last week you read how Rs 3,31,47,262 was spent on the shenanigans of the NRI Commissioner Eduardo Faleiro. When I said partying at conventions, I was serious, very serious. Here’s how some of that money was spent. A symposium on NRIs and family values held at the Goa International Centre, Dona Paula in Panjim on July 22, 2006 cost Rs 2,89,418. A huge sum of Rs 39,31,470 was spent on the Global Goans Convention 2007 held at the Cidade de Goa (yes, the chosen one) on January 3-5, 2007. Rs 7,23,421 was blown up on the 7th Know India programme for Diaspora youth on September 2-15, 2007. No venue was specified in the RTI data. A conference on Indian expats in the Gulf held at Hotel Mandovi, Panjim on March 29, 2008 cost Rs 1,98,308. A sum of Rs 3,88,740 was spent on a conference on building bridges with Africa on July 12, 2008 at the Cidade de Goa. The 1st Know Goa programme for Goan diaspora youth held jointly in Goa and Delhi on November 30 and December 14 of 2008 cost you Rs 13,47,689. I can’t begin to tell you how many times these well-heeled Goan youth must have holidayed in Goa prior to this extravaganza, and now we give them a paid holiday in Goa and one to Delhi just for good measure. Then there was Faleiro’s magnum opus: a conference on migration trends and the Goa Migration Study 2008 at the Goa International Centre held on October 9, 2009. Cost: Rs 1,66,180. Also, if you recall from last Sunday, the study cost Rs 20L, and Faleiro also flew to Kerala at a cost Rs 1,39,781 for the purpose.
More tears for tax-payers
Next he organized a 2nd Know Goa programme in Goa and Delhi from November 30-December 14, 2008 an extravaganza that cost you Rs 14,99,877. Makes you want to pull out your hair. Finally, a conference called ‘Goans in Europe and Europeans in Goa: Cultural experiences and identity’ at Hotel Nova Goa, Panjim on December 11, 2009 that cost Rs 52,949. Yes, I know that word identity again, and all that money blown on a Lost Cause. Hollywood makes sequels, Faleiro makes re-runs of lost causes or as some would say lost cause found again. In the end, the lost cause really was the Rs 85,98,052 spent on partying at conventions. And when they were not carousing, they were flying.
The joy(stick) of flying
Between Faleiro, VAdm John D’Silva (retd), Chairman of the Overseas Employment Agency of Goa, and U.D Kamat, the Director for NRI Affairs, they spent Rs 4,22,781 on flying within the country in 2009-10. Faleiro did that Kerala trip that cost Rs 1,39,781 on May 10-17, 2009. He flew to Bangalore on July 1-8 – Rs 40,746, to Delhi on August 2-8 - Rs 59,247, to Delhi on October 20-24 - Rs 1,22,715 and to Bangalore again on January 25-31, 2010 - Rs 9,277. It’s been questioned here before and needs to be posed again. How on earth do Goa’s politicians pay well over Rs 1L for a single (allegedly) ticket? D’Silva flew to Delhi on July 22-25, 2009 – Rs 10,651, to Bangalore and Delhi on August 23-30 – Rs 9,118 and to Delhi on September 7-10, 2009 – Rs 23,248. Kamat flew once, to Hyderabad, on July 25-27 – Rs 7,998. If you see the humour in it, Faleiro’s flying abroad in fact could entitle him to become a non-resident Goan himself. Well, at least, a BRG (barely resident Goan).
Run(away) costs
In 2008-09 Rs 8,14,833 of your tax bucks was spent on them flying within the country. You could also call it run(away) costs of flying and the pun is hugely intended. Faleiro flew to Delhi on April 24-26, 2008 - Rs 38,885, to Delhi, Vishakapatnam and Hyderabad on June 22-July 6 – Rs 62,333, to Delhi on August 20-27 – Rs 46,985, to Delhi on September 20-23 – at a huge cost of Rs 99,156, to Delhi again on October 19-23 – at a massive, massive cost of Rs 1,46,557, to Delhi on October 28-November 1 – Rs 55,397, to Mumbai on November 11-17 – Rs 25,070, to Delhi on March 1-6, 2009 – again incurring a massive Rs 1,60,997. The question is why did Faleiro spend Rs 6,35,680 flying mostly between April-November of 2008 to destinations one can safely assume had little or nothing to do with his job (officially at least) at hand. Incidentally, both D’Silva and Kamat also did their bit of flying --to the same destinations. So were they shadowing Faleiro or simply duplicating his work? D’Silva flew to Delhi (2), Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram, while Kamat flew to Delhi (5), Hyderabad and Mumbai. In 2007-08 the trio spent Rs 5,33,805, Faleiro doing the bulk of the costlier flying once again. Like his Rs 1,06,789 flight to Delhi on October 21-27, 2007, another to Mumbai-Vishakhapatnam-Hyderabad-Mumbai on July 2-8, 2007 – Rs 47,194 and another to Mumbai on January 3-6, 2008 - Rs 53,472. D’Silva flew Bangalore-Hyderabad-Chennai on April 17-20, 2007 – Rs 41,388. In all they flew 19 times, the same as the year earlier. In 2006-07 they flew 15 times at a cost to you of Rs 3,42,649, D’Silva making a Rs 31,780 flight to Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram, a destination that also attracted Kamat.
Report on the report
I know you are curious, so here are the facts. The cost of the Goa Migration Study 2008 was Rs 20L, while the cost of flying to Thiruvananthapuram where the study was invented was Rs 2,03,522. If you like to see it, it’s available at the office of the Commissioner for NRI Affairs at the Porvorim Secretariat. But don’t bother, you won’t find anything you already don’t know.
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Last week you read how Rs 3,31,47,262 was spent on the shenanigans of the NRI Commissioner Eduardo Faleiro. When I said partying at conventions, I was serious, very serious. Here’s how some of that money was spent. A symposium on NRIs and family values held at the Goa International Centre, Dona Paula in Panjim on July 22, 2006 cost Rs 2,89,418. A huge sum of Rs 39,31,470 was spent on the Global Goans Convention 2007 held at the Cidade de Goa (yes, the chosen one) on January 3-5, 2007. Rs 7,23,421 was blown up on the 7th Know India programme for Diaspora youth on September 2-15, 2007. No venue was specified in the RTI data. A conference on Indian expats in the Gulf held at Hotel Mandovi, Panjim on March 29, 2008 cost Rs 1,98,308. A sum of Rs 3,88,740 was spent on a conference on building bridges with Africa on July 12, 2008 at the Cidade de Goa. The 1st Know Goa programme for Goan diaspora youth held jointly in Goa and Delhi on November 30 and December 14 of 2008 cost you Rs 13,47,689. I can’t begin to tell you how many times these well-heeled Goan youth must have holidayed in Goa prior to this extravaganza, and now we give them a paid holiday in Goa and one to Delhi just for good measure. Then there was Faleiro’s magnum opus: a conference on migration trends and the Goa Migration Study 2008 at the Goa International Centre held on October 9, 2009. Cost: Rs 1,66,180. Also, if you recall from last Sunday, the study cost Rs 20L, and Faleiro also flew to Kerala at a cost Rs 1,39,781 for the purpose.
More tears for tax-payers
Next he organized a 2nd Know Goa programme in Goa and Delhi from November 30-December 14, 2008 an extravaganza that cost you Rs 14,99,877. Makes you want to pull out your hair. Finally, a conference called ‘Goans in Europe and Europeans in Goa: Cultural experiences and identity’ at Hotel Nova Goa, Panjim on December 11, 2009 that cost Rs 52,949. Yes, I know that word identity again, and all that money blown on a Lost Cause. Hollywood makes sequels, Faleiro makes re-runs of lost causes or as some would say lost cause found again. In the end, the lost cause really was the Rs 85,98,052 spent on partying at conventions. And when they were not carousing, they were flying.
The joy(stick) of flying
Between Faleiro, VAdm John D’Silva (retd), Chairman of the Overseas Employment Agency of Goa, and U.D Kamat, the Director for NRI Affairs, they spent Rs 4,22,781 on flying within the country in 2009-10. Faleiro did that Kerala trip that cost Rs 1,39,781 on May 10-17, 2009. He flew to Bangalore on July 1-8 – Rs 40,746, to Delhi on August 2-8 - Rs 59,247, to Delhi on October 20-24 - Rs 1,22,715 and to Bangalore again on January 25-31, 2010 - Rs 9,277. It’s been questioned here before and needs to be posed again. How on earth do Goa’s politicians pay well over Rs 1L for a single (allegedly) ticket? D’Silva flew to Delhi on July 22-25, 2009 – Rs 10,651, to Bangalore and Delhi on August 23-30 – Rs 9,118 and to Delhi on September 7-10, 2009 – Rs 23,248. Kamat flew once, to Hyderabad, on July 25-27 – Rs 7,998. If you see the humour in it, Faleiro’s flying abroad in fact could entitle him to become a non-resident Goan himself. Well, at least, a BRG (barely resident Goan).
Run(away) costs
In 2008-09 Rs 8,14,833 of your tax bucks was spent on them flying within the country. You could also call it run(away) costs of flying and the pun is hugely intended. Faleiro flew to Delhi on April 24-26, 2008 - Rs 38,885, to Delhi, Vishakapatnam and Hyderabad on June 22-July 6 – Rs 62,333, to Delhi on August 20-27 – Rs 46,985, to Delhi on September 20-23 – at a huge cost of Rs 99,156, to Delhi again on October 19-23 – at a massive, massive cost of Rs 1,46,557, to Delhi on October 28-November 1 – Rs 55,397, to Mumbai on November 11-17 – Rs 25,070, to Delhi on March 1-6, 2009 – again incurring a massive Rs 1,60,997. The question is why did Faleiro spend Rs 6,35,680 flying mostly between April-November of 2008 to destinations one can safely assume had little or nothing to do with his job (officially at least) at hand. Incidentally, both D’Silva and Kamat also did their bit of flying --to the same destinations. So were they shadowing Faleiro or simply duplicating his work? D’Silva flew to Delhi (2), Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram, while Kamat flew to Delhi (5), Hyderabad and Mumbai. In 2007-08 the trio spent Rs 5,33,805, Faleiro doing the bulk of the costlier flying once again. Like his Rs 1,06,789 flight to Delhi on October 21-27, 2007, another to Mumbai-Vishakhapatnam-Hyderabad-Mumbai on July 2-8, 2007 – Rs 47,194 and another to Mumbai on January 3-6, 2008 - Rs 53,472. D’Silva flew Bangalore-Hyderabad-Chennai on April 17-20, 2007 – Rs 41,388. In all they flew 19 times, the same as the year earlier. In 2006-07 they flew 15 times at a cost to you of Rs 3,42,649, D’Silva making a Rs 31,780 flight to Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram, a destination that also attracted Kamat.
Report on the report
I know you are curious, so here are the facts. The cost of the Goa Migration Study 2008 was Rs 20L, while the cost of flying to Thiruvananthapuram where the study was invented was Rs 2,03,522. If you like to see it, it’s available at the office of the Commissioner for NRI Affairs at the Porvorim Secretariat. But don’t bother, you won’t find anything you already don’t know.
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Faleiro Flying Files
Nature of the beast -Public Office
Who can blame you, if after you read this you want to avoid the taxman for eternity? In other words like the statutory warning that says smoking could be injurious to your health, reading this is. Certainly don’t show it to your kids, they may want to become politicians. Aires Rodrigues, that other pain in the butt for many, says Rs 3,31,47,262, that is, 3 crores 31 lakh 47 thousand 262 rupees of your tax bucks was spent on NRI Commissioner Eduardo Faleiro and on his often desolate office in the Secretariat at Porvorim from February 23, 2006 till June this year. As you will see, considerable amounts of it were spent combusting aviation fuel, precisely Rs 28,93,260, only on travels abroad sometimes along with his two buddies U.D Kamat, the Director, NRI Affairs and Vice Adm. John D’Silva (retd), Chairman, Overseas Employment Agency of Goa (OEAG), a post that Faleiro created as an extension of the gravy train. Their travels within India cost you Rs 13,53,342 in tax bucks. Total: Rs 42,46,602. Airline counters must love the sight of him in these days of crippling aviation fuel costs and price wars. So does the Kerala-based Centre for Development Studies (CDS) which was paid Rs 20L to do that Goa Migration Study 2008 which I am positive if you googled, you could learn more about the subject. Or, simply choose to ask any one of the many Goan associations abroad which I can vouch will give you authentic answers. Because, talking migration and identity loss has a richly stimulating effect on quite a few Goans these days. Which is perhaps what Faleiro had in mind to be fair to him, but he got his modus operandi all wrong.
Praise the Lord for tax money
Hallelujah. You can almost hear Faleiro saying that. But shed tears for the tax-payer. I have not seen the report but I wonder how CDS could have researched; 1) The magnitudes and dimensions of migration from Goa and return migration to Goa; 2) Assess annual flow and estimation of remittances from Goan emigrants; 3) Study socio-economic effect of migration on households; 4) Understand rehabilitation issues of return emigrants; within a short span of time. Because the 2008 report was released (released, not handed over to Faleiro) on June 2, 2009. Bingo, Faleiro did make an expensive trip to Kerala on May 10-17, 2009 that cost you Rs 1,39,781 which I know makes you wonder because for that price you could fly around the world. The researchers would have had to run through entire Goa to research any one of the parameters, leave alone all three in so short a time. In fact, it would be interesting to evaluate the flow of remittances if at all the researchers got within even an arm’s length of the figures. I doubt if the Reserve Bank of India has a ballpark figure considering the complexities involved and types (including destinations from) of remittances. Who approved the research methodology? Say a short prayer for Goa University which has at least some Goans and as a result could have done a better job. At least GU would have been answerable to the Goan tax-payer.
During that time Feb 2006-June 2010 Faleiro’s rent-free NRI office cost you Rs 67,63,055 on salaries. He gave out grant-in-aid of Rs 30L, that is Rs 20L in 2007-08, Rs 5L each in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Advertising his feats cost Rs 17,72,223. Professional services cost Rs 1,65,717. Other charges, whatever that is, took up Rs 1,60,37,914, I kid you not. Bottomline, while his flying cost Rs 42,46,602, office expenses cost Rs 2,89,00,660. What did it achieve? Positively nothing, apart from the partying at conventions abroad, that is.
Green grass on the other side
If you think there must have been some positive gains from all that expenditure, think again. After all Churchill Alemao, who knows best what is good for south Goa (and now Karwar too) did say all those mega housing projects provide jobs to Goans as security guards. Then believe this, because under the head achievements, this is what the Under Secretary, Home Department, Foreigner’s & Citizenship Division, has to say: 1) “The OEAG has imparted skill up-gradation and foreign orientation”. 2) On the migration study: “Goa is the second State after Kerala to have done a scientific migration study”. 3) “Goa Cards have been issued to nearly 500 Goan expatriates so far on request on payment of Rs 250. Holders get faster access and better attention from government offices and the benefits include concessions by government undertakings, private hospitals, and hotels.” 4) The Goa Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act, 1968 was amended to protect the property rights of NRIs. 5) A website globalgoans.org.in was hosted. 6) A “well represented” state level committee reportedly solves grievances of non-resident Goans and has “taken up follow-up action on various issues with the departments concerned and resolved several issues to the satisfaction of affected NRGs.” The under-secretary’s five-page report however did not give a stitch of evidence to support any of the ‘achievements’ of the Commissioner for NRI Affairs. 7) “A Goa scholarships programme for Diaspora children was established”. 8) “My Village scheme for expatriates keen to participate in developing their villages and towns in Goa was established.” There are more ‘achievement’ claims in the report like expediting compensation provided by the United Nations Claims Commission for Kuwaiti war victims which would otherwise have lapsed. But you would like to see the list, wouldn’t you? I would too, thank you. In fact, do check the website and make your own informed judgement.
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Who can blame you, if after you read this you want to avoid the taxman for eternity? In other words like the statutory warning that says smoking could be injurious to your health, reading this is. Certainly don’t show it to your kids, they may want to become politicians. Aires Rodrigues, that other pain in the butt for many, says Rs 3,31,47,262, that is, 3 crores 31 lakh 47 thousand 262 rupees of your tax bucks was spent on NRI Commissioner Eduardo Faleiro and on his often desolate office in the Secretariat at Porvorim from February 23, 2006 till June this year. As you will see, considerable amounts of it were spent combusting aviation fuel, precisely Rs 28,93,260, only on travels abroad sometimes along with his two buddies U.D Kamat, the Director, NRI Affairs and Vice Adm. John D’Silva (retd), Chairman, Overseas Employment Agency of Goa (OEAG), a post that Faleiro created as an extension of the gravy train. Their travels within India cost you Rs 13,53,342 in tax bucks. Total: Rs 42,46,602. Airline counters must love the sight of him in these days of crippling aviation fuel costs and price wars. So does the Kerala-based Centre for Development Studies (CDS) which was paid Rs 20L to do that Goa Migration Study 2008 which I am positive if you googled, you could learn more about the subject. Or, simply choose to ask any one of the many Goan associations abroad which I can vouch will give you authentic answers. Because, talking migration and identity loss has a richly stimulating effect on quite a few Goans these days. Which is perhaps what Faleiro had in mind to be fair to him, but he got his modus operandi all wrong.
Praise the Lord for tax money
Hallelujah. You can almost hear Faleiro saying that. But shed tears for the tax-payer. I have not seen the report but I wonder how CDS could have researched; 1) The magnitudes and dimensions of migration from Goa and return migration to Goa; 2) Assess annual flow and estimation of remittances from Goan emigrants; 3) Study socio-economic effect of migration on households; 4) Understand rehabilitation issues of return emigrants; within a short span of time. Because the 2008 report was released (released, not handed over to Faleiro) on June 2, 2009. Bingo, Faleiro did make an expensive trip to Kerala on May 10-17, 2009 that cost you Rs 1,39,781 which I know makes you wonder because for that price you could fly around the world. The researchers would have had to run through entire Goa to research any one of the parameters, leave alone all three in so short a time. In fact, it would be interesting to evaluate the flow of remittances if at all the researchers got within even an arm’s length of the figures. I doubt if the Reserve Bank of India has a ballpark figure considering the complexities involved and types (including destinations from) of remittances. Who approved the research methodology? Say a short prayer for Goa University which has at least some Goans and as a result could have done a better job. At least GU would have been answerable to the Goan tax-payer.
During that time Feb 2006-June 2010 Faleiro’s rent-free NRI office cost you Rs 67,63,055 on salaries. He gave out grant-in-aid of Rs 30L, that is Rs 20L in 2007-08, Rs 5L each in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Advertising his feats cost Rs 17,72,223. Professional services cost Rs 1,65,717. Other charges, whatever that is, took up Rs 1,60,37,914, I kid you not. Bottomline, while his flying cost Rs 42,46,602, office expenses cost Rs 2,89,00,660. What did it achieve? Positively nothing, apart from the partying at conventions abroad, that is.
Green grass on the other side
If you think there must have been some positive gains from all that expenditure, think again. After all Churchill Alemao, who knows best what is good for south Goa (and now Karwar too) did say all those mega housing projects provide jobs to Goans as security guards. Then believe this, because under the head achievements, this is what the Under Secretary, Home Department, Foreigner’s & Citizenship Division, has to say: 1) “The OEAG has imparted skill up-gradation and foreign orientation”. 2) On the migration study: “Goa is the second State after Kerala to have done a scientific migration study”. 3) “Goa Cards have been issued to nearly 500 Goan expatriates so far on request on payment of Rs 250. Holders get faster access and better attention from government offices and the benefits include concessions by government undertakings, private hospitals, and hotels.” 4) The Goa Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act, 1968 was amended to protect the property rights of NRIs. 5) A website globalgoans.org.in was hosted. 6) A “well represented” state level committee reportedly solves grievances of non-resident Goans and has “taken up follow-up action on various issues with the departments concerned and resolved several issues to the satisfaction of affected NRGs.” The under-secretary’s five-page report however did not give a stitch of evidence to support any of the ‘achievements’ of the Commissioner for NRI Affairs. 7) “A Goa scholarships programme for Diaspora children was established”. 8) “My Village scheme for expatriates keen to participate in developing their villages and towns in Goa was established.” There are more ‘achievement’ claims in the report like expediting compensation provided by the United Nations Claims Commission for Kuwaiti war victims which would otherwise have lapsed. But you would like to see the list, wouldn’t you? I would too, thank you. In fact, do check the website and make your own informed judgement.
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Driving You Crazy
Of Mad Men and Crazy Women on the Roads
Last week I asked why the traffic police ever bothered to apologise for the mayhem on the roads. For once I find myself defending them because frankly, theirs is a lost cause. We have many, many madmen and a few crazy women too on the roads. The traffic police identified 60 accident prone zones in the north and 40 in the south, narrowing down the main causes to “rash and negligent driving, over speeding, dangerous overtaking, lane cutting, drunken driving, fault of pedestrians, bad roads, mechanical defects, and stray cattle.” I find five categories missing here; the PWD, the bully government driver, the insensitive taxi driver and the trigger happy truck/utility van driver, 98 percent of whom are migrants who pop in an out of the many cheap bars at regular intervals in the course of work, and/or rich kids whose parents are walking ATMs. Ah, that brings me to Goa’s ubiquitous bars. Somehow this Goan edifice does not figure in the list. Shouldn’t it? Look at the many cars parked outside favourite watering holes on just the one highway itself. In fact rather than the row over late night drinking hours, it should have been about strict closure after 2pm. But that doesn’t happen, so at Gene bar opposite the Goa Institute of Management in Ribandar, for example, no one quits before 4pm which is when the bar shuts down for the afternoon. This is also where quite a few tourists have literally one for the road before driving off to Karnataka! Yet in 2009 ‘under the influence of drinking’ made up a miserly Rs 1,16,200 of the Rs 3,28,25,050 collected as fines by the traffic police. And I almost forgot, the most dangerous of all causes, your friendly neighbourhood MLA who gets hot lined immediately a voter is caught and makes the case go away. Cars with tinted glasses were fined Rs 7,27,700. Improper number plates produced Rs 8,57,900 and then I begin to wonder, is the traffic cop really blameless?
Too Fast Too Furious
That would be the best way to describe many drivers in Goa and yet two-wheel riders collectively paid Rs 75,83,900 for not wearing helmets and drivers without seat belts paid a collective Rs 20,05,700. Dangerous parking, whatever that means earned fines of Rs 18,55,600 while drivers using a mobile while driving paid Rs 8,37,100 in fines. Which you would think would actually run into several crores considering the only ones who don’t mobile-talk and drive are bus drivers simply because they are in such a tearing hurry to get from point A to B, they have no time for chatter. Though, if their vehicles were fitted with power steering, I wonder! Where am I going with this? Apart from those certified mad men on the roads, I am not too sure the traffic police are entirely or even partially blameless.
Right time, right place cops
Rash and negligent drivers paid a fine of Rs 36,71,050 of the total of Rs 3,28,25,050. Add Rs 16,00,100 for over speeding to that and it looks too easy for the traffic police. Look again at all the categories above. It is obvious Goa’s drivers (described here) are just easy prey because they don’t care about getting caught. All that the traffic police have to do is wait for the inevitable to happen, like football strikers, many of whom earn their keep by simply poaching which means to be at the right place, at the right time. Then it’s a matter of a simple tap in. Here’s the evidence. No entry was fined a huge, huge Rs 26,70,450 while wrong turning was fined Rs 2,41,200. More proof. The combination of drinking and driving (Rs 1,16,200), rash and negligent driving (Rs 36,71,050) and over speeding (Rs 16,00,100) toted up to Rs 53,87,350 of the total fines of Rs 3,28,25,050.
Police predators
The police waiting at the right place, at the right time earned them a total of Rs 29,11,650 in fines paid by foolhardy drivers (categories: wrong turn and no entry). Add that figure to fines of Rs 17,19,400 paid by drivers dumb enough to drive without side mirrors, you have a figure of Rs 46,31,050. And remember, this figure has nothing to do with tinted glasses fines (Rs 7,27,700) , improper number plates (Rs 8,57,900), no helmets (Rs 75,83,900), no seat belts (Rs 20,05,700), and dangerous parking (Rs 18,55,600), all of which add up to Rs 1,76,61,850 and does not include that totally uncaring group of drivers driving while using mobiles (Rs 8,37,100). So, it’s really about dumbos dying to get caught and not about the traffic police trying to make our roads safe. There were huge fines paid for driving without tarpaulin Rs 8,79,800, without uniform Rs 6,22,000, violating traffic signals Rs 4,09,000, none of which helped to make our roads safer.
Easy meat
How else would you describe drivers without number plates who contrived to pay Rs 1,73,750 in fines. Lane cutting Rs 2,11,600. Really now, who on Gods’ earth does not know which are the fave spots of the traffic police? A few seconds past the spots they lurk in and you can knock yourself out literally cutting lanes. But no, you can’t wait, can you? Ditto for overtaking Rs 5,97,900. This is a tough one. Driving without proper lights Rs 4,53,450. “Allowing unlicensed to drive” Rs 1,43,050. Another tough one, but if it means allowing your kid to drive, seriously, how dumb can you get? Just pick any lonely village road where you will never find a cop of any kind!
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Last week I asked why the traffic police ever bothered to apologise for the mayhem on the roads. For once I find myself defending them because frankly, theirs is a lost cause. We have many, many madmen and a few crazy women too on the roads. The traffic police identified 60 accident prone zones in the north and 40 in the south, narrowing down the main causes to “rash and negligent driving, over speeding, dangerous overtaking, lane cutting, drunken driving, fault of pedestrians, bad roads, mechanical defects, and stray cattle.” I find five categories missing here; the PWD, the bully government driver, the insensitive taxi driver and the trigger happy truck/utility van driver, 98 percent of whom are migrants who pop in an out of the many cheap bars at regular intervals in the course of work, and/or rich kids whose parents are walking ATMs. Ah, that brings me to Goa’s ubiquitous bars. Somehow this Goan edifice does not figure in the list. Shouldn’t it? Look at the many cars parked outside favourite watering holes on just the one highway itself. In fact rather than the row over late night drinking hours, it should have been about strict closure after 2pm. But that doesn’t happen, so at Gene bar opposite the Goa Institute of Management in Ribandar, for example, no one quits before 4pm which is when the bar shuts down for the afternoon. This is also where quite a few tourists have literally one for the road before driving off to Karnataka! Yet in 2009 ‘under the influence of drinking’ made up a miserly Rs 1,16,200 of the Rs 3,28,25,050 collected as fines by the traffic police. And I almost forgot, the most dangerous of all causes, your friendly neighbourhood MLA who gets hot lined immediately a voter is caught and makes the case go away. Cars with tinted glasses were fined Rs 7,27,700. Improper number plates produced Rs 8,57,900 and then I begin to wonder, is the traffic cop really blameless?
Too Fast Too Furious
That would be the best way to describe many drivers in Goa and yet two-wheel riders collectively paid Rs 75,83,900 for not wearing helmets and drivers without seat belts paid a collective Rs 20,05,700. Dangerous parking, whatever that means earned fines of Rs 18,55,600 while drivers using a mobile while driving paid Rs 8,37,100 in fines. Which you would think would actually run into several crores considering the only ones who don’t mobile-talk and drive are bus drivers simply because they are in such a tearing hurry to get from point A to B, they have no time for chatter. Though, if their vehicles were fitted with power steering, I wonder! Where am I going with this? Apart from those certified mad men on the roads, I am not too sure the traffic police are entirely or even partially blameless.
Right time, right place cops
Rash and negligent drivers paid a fine of Rs 36,71,050 of the total of Rs 3,28,25,050. Add Rs 16,00,100 for over speeding to that and it looks too easy for the traffic police. Look again at all the categories above. It is obvious Goa’s drivers (described here) are just easy prey because they don’t care about getting caught. All that the traffic police have to do is wait for the inevitable to happen, like football strikers, many of whom earn their keep by simply poaching which means to be at the right place, at the right time. Then it’s a matter of a simple tap in. Here’s the evidence. No entry was fined a huge, huge Rs 26,70,450 while wrong turning was fined Rs 2,41,200. More proof. The combination of drinking and driving (Rs 1,16,200), rash and negligent driving (Rs 36,71,050) and over speeding (Rs 16,00,100) toted up to Rs 53,87,350 of the total fines of Rs 3,28,25,050.
Police predators
The police waiting at the right place, at the right time earned them a total of Rs 29,11,650 in fines paid by foolhardy drivers (categories: wrong turn and no entry). Add that figure to fines of Rs 17,19,400 paid by drivers dumb enough to drive without side mirrors, you have a figure of Rs 46,31,050. And remember, this figure has nothing to do with tinted glasses fines (Rs 7,27,700) , improper number plates (Rs 8,57,900), no helmets (Rs 75,83,900), no seat belts (Rs 20,05,700), and dangerous parking (Rs 18,55,600), all of which add up to Rs 1,76,61,850 and does not include that totally uncaring group of drivers driving while using mobiles (Rs 8,37,100). So, it’s really about dumbos dying to get caught and not about the traffic police trying to make our roads safe. There were huge fines paid for driving without tarpaulin Rs 8,79,800, without uniform Rs 6,22,000, violating traffic signals Rs 4,09,000, none of which helped to make our roads safer.
Easy meat
How else would you describe drivers without number plates who contrived to pay Rs 1,73,750 in fines. Lane cutting Rs 2,11,600. Really now, who on Gods’ earth does not know which are the fave spots of the traffic police? A few seconds past the spots they lurk in and you can knock yourself out literally cutting lanes. But no, you can’t wait, can you? Ditto for overtaking Rs 5,97,900. This is a tough one. Driving without proper lights Rs 4,53,450. “Allowing unlicensed to drive” Rs 1,43,050. Another tough one, but if it means allowing your kid to drive, seriously, how dumb can you get? Just pick any lonely village road where you will never find a cop of any kind!
(feedback lionroars.goa@gmail.com, 9822152164)
Monday, August 23, 2010
Goa Broke?
Fishy fiscal propriety
Is Goa going broke? If the answer is no, it could well be getting there. A former development commissioner now back in Delhi once told me the direction in which the Digambar Kamat government was heading, it would hit financial road’s end sooner than later weighed down as it is by a hefty pension bill of an army of retired workers, not to mention the cost of government workers currently occupying table space. As on December 31, 2009 your government’s market borrowings were Rs 229880.23 (in lakhs) up from Rs 163111.72 the previous year. In other words, it borrowed Rs 66768.51 more from the market within the space of just 12 months. This kind of figure does not exactly spell fiscal prudence especially in a state where VAT collection is virtually nonexistent in major areas of the tourism and mining industries. How many restaurants and how many in ancillary services to the mining industry you know, give you a proper tax added on bill even if you ask for one. But I wager you also have an endless list of these and other traders that are plainly affronted if you ask for a bill, a proper one that is, not a hand written bit of notepad paper. By the way, market borrowing sources are those other than the central government and institutions that lend like LIC, NABARD, NCDC, REC, HUDCO and PFC.
The Beginning
At the end of 2007, its market borrowings were Rs 122735.8. In 2006 end it was Rs 100942.89. In 2005 it was Rs 99443.01 and in 2004 end it was Rs 96121.31. Clearly from 2006 its financial management went awry and its borrowings took a frenzied pace. This stands out clearly in all its borrowings from other sources too. For example in 2004 its loan borrowings from the central government stood at Rs 234332.44. By 2009 it went up to Rs 334970.12, a hike of Rs 100637.68. It also borrowed from the six institutional lenders named above. To cut a long and worrying story short by end 2009 it had borrowed Rs 593201.26 up from Rs 346755.77 borrowed in 2004 end. While no Indian state can claim to be financially prudent, point is our MLA’s discuss monitoring of fish sold in the market in the Assembly instead of fiscal discipline.
Deep Blue Sea
It could get worse if the environmentally dangerous Panjim-Vasco Sea Link Project is undertaken considering the consultant Louis Berger Group alone was paid Rs 89 lakh. There’s something between the Congress and the deep sea because successive governments have paid a total of Rs 21.60 lakh towards the Oceanorium project which might needed a lot more oxygen before it begins to breathe, if ever. For the record, Rs 10.60 lakh was paid to the Transaction Advisor and Rs 11 lakh spent to build a compound wall around the project site which so far has seen only rain fall and nothing else. There’s the River Princess calamity. Then there’s also Greenfield Mopa airport project which for sheer lunacy must rank second only to that scam of the century, the Commonwealth Games. National Games 2011 did you say? Yes, there’s that too.
They protest too much
What is with traders and shop owners in Panjim? They protest too much. This time it’s the Municipal Market Tenants’ Association protestations against the Corporation of the City of Panjim’s (CCP) pay parking around the municipal market. In the past, traders have protested every citizen friendly decision of the police traffic cell and the CCP to decongest the crammed city which gets crammed by the building so to speak. It’s bursting at the seams and the buildings keep coming in a wave. Traders in Panjim have usurped public parking space, some of them using devious ways like placing hand carts in front of their shops. In fact I wonder why the traffic cell even bothers to defend itself for the mayhem on the roads but more on that on another day soon. It’s also okay to take over entire pavements. Herald pointed out sometime ago how Kamat Hotel in Panjim conveniently allowed panwallahs outside because it helped their almost entirely tourist clientele forcing locals to walk on the road. The Panjim traffic cell pointed out how shop owners parked their own vehicles on 18th June Road from morning till closing time occupying most of the parking space. There are more blatant examples of appropriation of parking spaces. Do us a favour please, cut the crap and put a zip on that lip of yours.
Here’s really why
This will shock you for their brazenness. The CCP has been left holding a water consumption bill of Rs 12,06,952 and an electricity bill of Rs 62,20,833 which traders in the municipal market have refused to pay. That’s a total of Rs 74,27,785 of money owed to CCP which desperately needs funds. There could be more owed by way of nonpayment of both rent and maintenance charges. Oh yes, these guys are in a league of their own and more. In fact there’s a huge scam waiting to be exposed of the CCP can complete the government-ordered investigation into the scams involving the market which the Goa Infrastructure Development Corporation built.
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Is Goa going broke? If the answer is no, it could well be getting there. A former development commissioner now back in Delhi once told me the direction in which the Digambar Kamat government was heading, it would hit financial road’s end sooner than later weighed down as it is by a hefty pension bill of an army of retired workers, not to mention the cost of government workers currently occupying table space. As on December 31, 2009 your government’s market borrowings were Rs 229880.23 (in lakhs) up from Rs 163111.72 the previous year. In other words, it borrowed Rs 66768.51 more from the market within the space of just 12 months. This kind of figure does not exactly spell fiscal prudence especially in a state where VAT collection is virtually nonexistent in major areas of the tourism and mining industries. How many restaurants and how many in ancillary services to the mining industry you know, give you a proper tax added on bill even if you ask for one. But I wager you also have an endless list of these and other traders that are plainly affronted if you ask for a bill, a proper one that is, not a hand written bit of notepad paper. By the way, market borrowing sources are those other than the central government and institutions that lend like LIC, NABARD, NCDC, REC, HUDCO and PFC.
The Beginning
At the end of 2007, its market borrowings were Rs 122735.8. In 2006 end it was Rs 100942.89. In 2005 it was Rs 99443.01 and in 2004 end it was Rs 96121.31. Clearly from 2006 its financial management went awry and its borrowings took a frenzied pace. This stands out clearly in all its borrowings from other sources too. For example in 2004 its loan borrowings from the central government stood at Rs 234332.44. By 2009 it went up to Rs 334970.12, a hike of Rs 100637.68. It also borrowed from the six institutional lenders named above. To cut a long and worrying story short by end 2009 it had borrowed Rs 593201.26 up from Rs 346755.77 borrowed in 2004 end. While no Indian state can claim to be financially prudent, point is our MLA’s discuss monitoring of fish sold in the market in the Assembly instead of fiscal discipline.
Deep Blue Sea
It could get worse if the environmentally dangerous Panjim-Vasco Sea Link Project is undertaken considering the consultant Louis Berger Group alone was paid Rs 89 lakh. There’s something between the Congress and the deep sea because successive governments have paid a total of Rs 21.60 lakh towards the Oceanorium project which might needed a lot more oxygen before it begins to breathe, if ever. For the record, Rs 10.60 lakh was paid to the Transaction Advisor and Rs 11 lakh spent to build a compound wall around the project site which so far has seen only rain fall and nothing else. There’s the River Princess calamity. Then there’s also Greenfield Mopa airport project which for sheer lunacy must rank second only to that scam of the century, the Commonwealth Games. National Games 2011 did you say? Yes, there’s that too.
They protest too much
What is with traders and shop owners in Panjim? They protest too much. This time it’s the Municipal Market Tenants’ Association protestations against the Corporation of the City of Panjim’s (CCP) pay parking around the municipal market. In the past, traders have protested every citizen friendly decision of the police traffic cell and the CCP to decongest the crammed city which gets crammed by the building so to speak. It’s bursting at the seams and the buildings keep coming in a wave. Traders in Panjim have usurped public parking space, some of them using devious ways like placing hand carts in front of their shops. In fact I wonder why the traffic cell even bothers to defend itself for the mayhem on the roads but more on that on another day soon. It’s also okay to take over entire pavements. Herald pointed out sometime ago how Kamat Hotel in Panjim conveniently allowed panwallahs outside because it helped their almost entirely tourist clientele forcing locals to walk on the road. The Panjim traffic cell pointed out how shop owners parked their own vehicles on 18th June Road from morning till closing time occupying most of the parking space. There are more blatant examples of appropriation of parking spaces. Do us a favour please, cut the crap and put a zip on that lip of yours.
Here’s really why
This will shock you for their brazenness. The CCP has been left holding a water consumption bill of Rs 12,06,952 and an electricity bill of Rs 62,20,833 which traders in the municipal market have refused to pay. That’s a total of Rs 74,27,785 of money owed to CCP which desperately needs funds. There could be more owed by way of nonpayment of both rent and maintenance charges. Oh yes, these guys are in a league of their own and more. In fact there’s a huge scam waiting to be exposed of the CCP can complete the government-ordered investigation into the scams involving the market which the Goa Infrastructure Development Corporation built.
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The sell-out of Goa by its politicians
Calling the kettle black
The Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) having its own way in Goa is nothing new. It’s because our politicians, unlike those in other States, just hate to protect anything that is Goan or can be identified as part of Goa. Only recently, the MPT became an exception for the ruling Congress government because frankly it went a tad too far. Remember all those advertisements establishing MPT’s territorial rights in Goa. What impudence! If that happened in Mumbai, Shiv Sena goons would have taken violent action against the source of the irritant. In the sedate South, the DMK in Tamil Nadu would have said “mind it” and that would be that. You doubt that? Google Chennai’s dailies of June 30 and you will see a report with a picture of (workers) of the Chennai Corporation taking over land encroached upon by a 5-star hotel owned by Apeejay Surendra Park Hotels Ltd. In Kochi, there would be no cause for concern in the first place. Malaylees don’t take BS from anyone, outsiders particularly. Kerala said ‘no 60m wide highways’. It ended there. Not Goa, our politicians don’t want to upset the apple cart, if you get my drift. They don’t even protect their own turf.
Expansionistic MPT
The MPT has a slew of expansionist projects, none of which augur well for Goa. If given a free hand to do what it wants, it will not only change the demography, it will change forever the horizon over Baina Bay and Vasco Bay and in future over Betul too. Driving the engine behind it will be the Union Shipping Minister GK Vasan, the MPT will only be a means to an end though it will partake of the cake. Its plans forced the Congress to warn the MPT that implementation of these will change the demography of Vasco da Gama. Coming from the Congress it sounded really funny because that is something the Congress achieved on its own through its inequitable industrial policies, etcetera. I guess it needed to issue a sound byte Goans love to hear. But, using it selectively, is adding insult to injury because WE THE PEOPLE have been saying it for three going on four decades! Or, by saying that, was the Congress reserving its sole right to change the demographics of Goa. Instead of the sound byte, it might begin by finding out what the MPT is doing/has done with a rather large acreage of land leased to it, which it has admitted it failed to monitor. The MPT is sitting pretty on 68 Ha under the dock area in Headland and slopes at Mormugao. In Baina, Vasco da Gama the MPT took on lease 17 Ha. Between 1971 and 1985 various governments allotted it nearly 52 Ha, while the MPT managed to “reclaim” nearly 25 Ha of land. It is possible the government isn’t earning a rupee from this. The government of 1981 leased 3.62 acres to Goa Shipyard Limited and it’s possible it may not have signed a deed agreement till now. For the record, the government of 2007 also leased 10,958 sq mt to GSL.
Lost in Translation
Between March last year and March 2010 all it had achieved was write a series of letters to all concerned in New Delhi, formed a Group of Ministers; but did not even succeed in getting old Portuguese documents translated/researched to put a finger on the touchy subject of jurisdiction and what was inherited and by whom from the Portuguese. In fact, ex-advocate general Carlos Ferreira excused himself from the research and was replaced by lawyer Jose E. Coelho Pereira who apparently also opted out because the ball appears to be back in Ferreira’s court. The GoM met thrice, on October 22, September 26, and October 22 of 2008. So much for the Congress’ concern about demographic change. At stake is about 1,000-1,500 Ha of land and nearly 2.5 km of waterfront land. In other words, it could hit you up to the west of Cortalim.
Joker in the pack
I don’t mean this in a funny way because as if it had an ace in hand, the government got the toothless Goa State Pollution Control Board to dash off yet another letter to the MPT - asking it to consider the cumulative impact of their projects, include these in the EIA/EMP study, hold a public hearing and submit hard copies of the proposed 4 mmtpa coal/coke handling port terminal at berth no. 11. The board also asked MPT to deposit Rs 5 lakh with it towards holding the public hearing. That’s right your concerned government didn’t want to spend Rs 5 lakh on this when it has spent crores on consultancy fees. Yes, it’s the same Pollution Board that hotels in Colva show the middle finger to. The letter was written in May, 2010. No guesses where the MPT put that letter. And oh, in a moment of pique, the GoM voted not to ask MPT for NOCs to conduct any activity on land the MPT claims is theirs. In other words, the GoM proved to be just as toothless and wimpish as the board!
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
The Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) having its own way in Goa is nothing new. It’s because our politicians, unlike those in other States, just hate to protect anything that is Goan or can be identified as part of Goa. Only recently, the MPT became an exception for the ruling Congress government because frankly it went a tad too far. Remember all those advertisements establishing MPT’s territorial rights in Goa. What impudence! If that happened in Mumbai, Shiv Sena goons would have taken violent action against the source of the irritant. In the sedate South, the DMK in Tamil Nadu would have said “mind it” and that would be that. You doubt that? Google Chennai’s dailies of June 30 and you will see a report with a picture of (workers) of the Chennai Corporation taking over land encroached upon by a 5-star hotel owned by Apeejay Surendra Park Hotels Ltd. In Kochi, there would be no cause for concern in the first place. Malaylees don’t take BS from anyone, outsiders particularly. Kerala said ‘no 60m wide highways’. It ended there. Not Goa, our politicians don’t want to upset the apple cart, if you get my drift. They don’t even protect their own turf.
Expansionistic MPT
The MPT has a slew of expansionist projects, none of which augur well for Goa. If given a free hand to do what it wants, it will not only change the demography, it will change forever the horizon over Baina Bay and Vasco Bay and in future over Betul too. Driving the engine behind it will be the Union Shipping Minister GK Vasan, the MPT will only be a means to an end though it will partake of the cake. Its plans forced the Congress to warn the MPT that implementation of these will change the demography of Vasco da Gama. Coming from the Congress it sounded really funny because that is something the Congress achieved on its own through its inequitable industrial policies, etcetera. I guess it needed to issue a sound byte Goans love to hear. But, using it selectively, is adding insult to injury because WE THE PEOPLE have been saying it for three going on four decades! Or, by saying that, was the Congress reserving its sole right to change the demographics of Goa. Instead of the sound byte, it might begin by finding out what the MPT is doing/has done with a rather large acreage of land leased to it, which it has admitted it failed to monitor. The MPT is sitting pretty on 68 Ha under the dock area in Headland and slopes at Mormugao. In Baina, Vasco da Gama the MPT took on lease 17 Ha. Between 1971 and 1985 various governments allotted it nearly 52 Ha, while the MPT managed to “reclaim” nearly 25 Ha of land. It is possible the government isn’t earning a rupee from this. The government of 1981 leased 3.62 acres to Goa Shipyard Limited and it’s possible it may not have signed a deed agreement till now. For the record, the government of 2007 also leased 10,958 sq mt to GSL.
Lost in Translation
Between March last year and March 2010 all it had achieved was write a series of letters to all concerned in New Delhi, formed a Group of Ministers; but did not even succeed in getting old Portuguese documents translated/researched to put a finger on the touchy subject of jurisdiction and what was inherited and by whom from the Portuguese. In fact, ex-advocate general Carlos Ferreira excused himself from the research and was replaced by lawyer Jose E. Coelho Pereira who apparently also opted out because the ball appears to be back in Ferreira’s court. The GoM met thrice, on October 22, September 26, and October 22 of 2008. So much for the Congress’ concern about demographic change. At stake is about 1,000-1,500 Ha of land and nearly 2.5 km of waterfront land. In other words, it could hit you up to the west of Cortalim.
Joker in the pack
I don’t mean this in a funny way because as if it had an ace in hand, the government got the toothless Goa State Pollution Control Board to dash off yet another letter to the MPT - asking it to consider the cumulative impact of their projects, include these in the EIA/EMP study, hold a public hearing and submit hard copies of the proposed 4 mmtpa coal/coke handling port terminal at berth no. 11. The board also asked MPT to deposit Rs 5 lakh with it towards holding the public hearing. That’s right your concerned government didn’t want to spend Rs 5 lakh on this when it has spent crores on consultancy fees. Yes, it’s the same Pollution Board that hotels in Colva show the middle finger to. The letter was written in May, 2010. No guesses where the MPT put that letter. And oh, in a moment of pique, the GoM voted not to ask MPT for NOCs to conduct any activity on land the MPT claims is theirs. In other words, the GoM proved to be just as toothless and wimpish as the board!
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Party Time - III
Carte du jour
The Minister for Revenue Jose Philip entertained modestly (remember, his flying too was moderate compared to his compadres) between April 2009-February 2010, the only relevance here for you as a taxpayer is he entertained some unnamed officials on June 5 and on November 6 he entertained a group of again unnamed police officers and officials of the Mormugao Port Trust, and District Collectors at a total cost of Rs 25,488 at Hotel La Paz. He threw his latest bash (January 7, 2010) for an unnamed group of councillors, officials and ‘dignitaries’. The La Paz bill is awaited.
That goes too for the Minister for Home Ravi Naik who kept a low profile unlike his other headline grabbing. Naik threw a dinner for “guests” attending the India Internal Security Conclave 2009 at the Majorda Beach Resort on September 24, 2009. Cost: Rs 90,000. On November 1 he threw a dinner for Diwan Chand (currently Special Secretary, Home) at the Fort Aguada Beach Resort that cost a whopping Rs 1,23,851. And a dinner for IPS probationers visiting Goa at the same hotel that cost Rs 1,38,076 on November 16. For your information, IPS and IAS probationers routinely visit Goa just like every other man or woman who draws a Government of India salary. Which is great if you own a posh hotel, posh restaurant or posh cab, right? But, do we have to wine and dine them at taxpayers cost? Ravi Naik thinks so, because he was back (February 28, 2010) to entertaining, this time a group of 80 unnamed officials at the Hotel Marriott. Bill awaited.
Typically, the Minister for Tourism (now ex) Mickky Pacheco entertained a group of Khazakstan delegates at the Park Hyatt on October 7, 2009. Cost: Rs 66,393. Put that down as being for the glory and good of that other fatted cow, the tourism industry. Proof of the pudding! How about this? Manohar Azgaonkar, the Minister for Panchayat threw a bash at Hotel Marriott on September 9, 2009 for delegates attending the “workshop of Principal Secretaries in charge of Panchayati Raj in Indian States” and some unnamed “others”. Cost: Rs 65,189.
Host with the most
It truly does pay to be a big cheese on holiday in Goa. Though, sometimes any kind will do, thank you. You are guaranteed at least one freebie dinner, sometimes two and no proof of your credentials is required. It’s enough if you play the part. Here’s proof of that and of Digambar Kamat’s parties that cost more than Rs 2L. He threw a Rs 3,73,024 dinner on June 27, 2008 for the chairman and members of the 13th Finance Commission and 100 other allegedly big wheels (producers etc) of the South Asian film industry at the Cidade de Goa. How did two very disparate groups come together in Goa, you ask? Could it be the trouble-free access to your easily available tax bucks? Or, that the government tried to kill two birds with one stone or, a combination of both. Remarkably, the same day the Minister for Finance (now ex) Dayanand Narvekar was also dining the chairman and members of the 13th Finance Commission at the same Cidade de Goa. Cost: Rs 87,943. That’s a total of Rs 4,60,967, but two dinners, same invitees? Was the government trying to get around its own self-imposed cap on partying following a series of similar exposures in this same column some time ago?
Open House
Kamat threw a Rs 2,00,227 do for 100 unnamed revelers at the Park Hyatt on August 12, 2008. On October 4, 2008 he blew Rs 3,99,800 on an Id-Milan jamboree at his official residence in Panjim. Amazingly, that night he threw a second, this time, Rs 2,48,460 dinner for some doctors from Maharashtra and Goa on the cruise boat Princess de Goa. On January 24, 2009 he hosted of all people on this planet, delegates of the 57th National Town and Country Planners Congress. That’s right, the same guys who give you the most grief (after politicians) with all their skewed planning. The Rs 3,51,854 dinner was held at Cidade de Goa. A Rs 3,88,927 dinner for delegates of the 12th Conference on e-Governance on IT at Hotel Inn Resort on February 12, 2009. A Rs 2,08,388 dinner at the Cidade de Goa for Jaime Lerner, an expert on urban planning from Brazil. This time guests of the DD Kosambe Festival of Ideas were invited to the dinner proving my point. Exactly a year later, February 12,2010, Kamat would host another dinner (see Party Time -1, July 25) for participants of the same DD Kosambe festival of Ideas at the same venue. So, was Lerner just an excuse to dine these guys? Makes you wonder.
Money for nothing
What’s more, the government’s Protocol Department might have inadvertently added a new dimension to VVIP to mean Visiting Very Important Persons. It incurred independently an expenditure of Rs 29,83,639 on accommodation and food for VVIPs visiting Goa between April 2008 and February 2010.
COST OF THE PARTY
Vishwajeet Rane Rs 4,54,282
Ravi Naik Rs 3,51,927
Aleixo Sequeira Rs 1,31,017
Manohar Azagaonkar Rs 65,189
Miccky Pacheco Rs 66,393
Jose Philip Rs 25,488
TOTAL: Rs 35,35,400
April 2008-March 2009: Rs 36,64,744
TOTAL: Rs 72,00,144
Protocol Department Rs 29,83,639
GRAND TOTAL: Rs 1,01,83,783!
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Monday, August 2, 2010
Party Time - II
Food for thought
Chief Minister Digambar Kamat spent Rs 22,07,748 entertaining between April 2009-February 2010. It was the turn next of Vishwajeet Rane, the Health Minister. But above the aroma of food, is a certain rot that could become like a resident rot (like decaying wood in your window frame) or like the fragile River Princess that will eventually break into two and become extinct only when its time is up to go to rack and ruin. Not a day before. Kind of dust to dust thing. I am talking about seven floating casinos and the pleasure boats dumping garbage in the Mandovi. In a few days time, August 4 exactly, the Bombay High Court (the only institution that works in Goa for the aam aadmi, the rest are all bakwas) will hear the writ petition challenging their expulsion from the Mandovi to outer anchorage at Aguada Bay. It’s funny but the official NOC of six (Pride of Goa, Arabian Sea King, The Leela, Casino Royale, San Domino, Caravela) expired during different months in 2009. The NOC of the Boa Sorte expires on August 23, that’s in three weeks. From this point of view, they are plying their trade illegally. But as this case could drag on for years, a status quo is perhaps what the owners want. Because they can use that as a reprieve and it will be business as usual for all. The government won’t win the case either because it will go out on a limb to lose it.
Here’s a thought. The insurance policies of six of the casinos expire this year. The policy on the Pride of Goa expires on May 15, 2011. I dunno, but I think the government could write to the insurance companies reminding them of the fact the NOCs have expired, thereby attracting possible legal implications. It might do to suggest that if passenger safety were compromised somehow it could lead to an insurance nightmare. It’s worth a try -- certainly better than all the government duplicity thus far. For the record, the insurance policy of the Arabian Sea King expires on December 22, 2010, The Leela – November 10, Casino Royale – October 15, San Domino – August 7, Caravela – December 22, Boa Sorte – November 2. So there.
You are what you eat
Rane threw his first bash on May 4, 2009, a lunch for a Health Advisory Committee catered by Kebab Corner at a cost of Rs 19,350. On June 28 he dined 40 delegates of Goa Medical College (GMC) meeting at Cidade-de-Goa. Cost: Rs 64,548. By the way Rane’s fave watering hole is the Cidade-de-Goa, where he threw another lunch costing Rs 36,995 for participants of a Health Advisory Council on July 4. Then there was this mother of all meals on August 2 for doctors of the GMC and DHS that cost you Rs 3,16,939 at Cidade-de-Goa. The justification, and I quote was “in respect of achievement and the new initiation of Government of Goa in the health sector.” (Chew on this too - On September 24, a year earlier he threw a party for 250 delegates attending a seminar on “Strategies for improving livelihood security of rural poor” on board the Santa Monica. Cost: Rs 3,10,250. Hiring the vessel cost an extra 25 grand. Food provider: NH 17). The next day, on August 3 he hosted another lunch for the Health Advisory Committee at NH 17. Cost: Rs 16,450.
No free lunch for the aam aadmi
Compare that with what the aam aadmi gets. Remember the damage caused to famers Bhagwan V. Naik and Sandeep L. Naik of Menkure village in Bicholim taluka by an elephant a couple of years ago. They each got a compensation of Rs 200 paid by cheque which must have made them even more distraught. By the cheque that is, not the paltry sum. Imagine the embarrassment of producing that to the bank and withdrawing the money a couple of days/ weeks later! And if you are wondering why I give a 2008 example? It’s only to make a virtual comparison. A 2010 comparison would be the Mopa land acquisition rate of Rs 60 per sq. mt that the government is going to give.
Barking up the wrong tree
You read about the thousand plus committees the government formed. This takes the cake. The Forest Department established seven committees between June 2007 and now. What is really amusing are names like this: ‘Identification of balance area of private forest’; ‘State level expert committee for identification of critical wildlife habitats’; ‘South Goa district committee’ – it was formed to identify private forest in South Goa; ‘State Board for Wildlife’; ‘Committee to review/ exam draft working plans of Forest Department’; ‘Governing body of State CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Management Planning Authority)’; ‘Steering committee of state CAMPA’; and ‘Executive committee of state CAMPA’. You ask but where’s the forest? Probably hidden under the forest of committees! The State Board for Wildlife has 39 members with the usual quota of MLAs (including Anil Salgaocar, the mine owner - an irony surely considering that it is excavation of mines that have destroyed forests!) and government babus (understandably). There’s also a cab owner who I think has a bar at Mollem and another, who is a pal of Filipe Neri Rodrigues, the Minister for Forests. But why the DG, Commandant, Coast Guard, Directors of Dabolim Airport, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Social Welfare? It’s like missing the trees for the forest.
Cost of the party
Digambar Kamat (April 2009-Feb 2010) Rs 22,07,748
Vishwajeet Rane (May-August 2009) Rs 4,54,282
Total: Rs 26,62,030
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Chief Minister Digambar Kamat spent Rs 22,07,748 entertaining between April 2009-February 2010. It was the turn next of Vishwajeet Rane, the Health Minister. But above the aroma of food, is a certain rot that could become like a resident rot (like decaying wood in your window frame) or like the fragile River Princess that will eventually break into two and become extinct only when its time is up to go to rack and ruin. Not a day before. Kind of dust to dust thing. I am talking about seven floating casinos and the pleasure boats dumping garbage in the Mandovi. In a few days time, August 4 exactly, the Bombay High Court (the only institution that works in Goa for the aam aadmi, the rest are all bakwas) will hear the writ petition challenging their expulsion from the Mandovi to outer anchorage at Aguada Bay. It’s funny but the official NOC of six (Pride of Goa, Arabian Sea King, The Leela, Casino Royale, San Domino, Caravela) expired during different months in 2009. The NOC of the Boa Sorte expires on August 23, that’s in three weeks. From this point of view, they are plying their trade illegally. But as this case could drag on for years, a status quo is perhaps what the owners want. Because they can use that as a reprieve and it will be business as usual for all. The government won’t win the case either because it will go out on a limb to lose it.
Here’s a thought. The insurance policies of six of the casinos expire this year. The policy on the Pride of Goa expires on May 15, 2011. I dunno, but I think the government could write to the insurance companies reminding them of the fact the NOCs have expired, thereby attracting possible legal implications. It might do to suggest that if passenger safety were compromised somehow it could lead to an insurance nightmare. It’s worth a try -- certainly better than all the government duplicity thus far. For the record, the insurance policy of the Arabian Sea King expires on December 22, 2010, The Leela – November 10, Casino Royale – October 15, San Domino – August 7, Caravela – December 22, Boa Sorte – November 2. So there.
You are what you eat
Rane threw his first bash on May 4, 2009, a lunch for a Health Advisory Committee catered by Kebab Corner at a cost of Rs 19,350. On June 28 he dined 40 delegates of Goa Medical College (GMC) meeting at Cidade-de-Goa. Cost: Rs 64,548. By the way Rane’s fave watering hole is the Cidade-de-Goa, where he threw another lunch costing Rs 36,995 for participants of a Health Advisory Council on July 4. Then there was this mother of all meals on August 2 for doctors of the GMC and DHS that cost you Rs 3,16,939 at Cidade-de-Goa. The justification, and I quote was “in respect of achievement and the new initiation of Government of Goa in the health sector.” (Chew on this too - On September 24, a year earlier he threw a party for 250 delegates attending a seminar on “Strategies for improving livelihood security of rural poor” on board the Santa Monica. Cost: Rs 3,10,250. Hiring the vessel cost an extra 25 grand. Food provider: NH 17). The next day, on August 3 he hosted another lunch for the Health Advisory Committee at NH 17. Cost: Rs 16,450.
No free lunch for the aam aadmi
Compare that with what the aam aadmi gets. Remember the damage caused to famers Bhagwan V. Naik and Sandeep L. Naik of Menkure village in Bicholim taluka by an elephant a couple of years ago. They each got a compensation of Rs 200 paid by cheque which must have made them even more distraught. By the cheque that is, not the paltry sum. Imagine the embarrassment of producing that to the bank and withdrawing the money a couple of days/ weeks later! And if you are wondering why I give a 2008 example? It’s only to make a virtual comparison. A 2010 comparison would be the Mopa land acquisition rate of Rs 60 per sq. mt that the government is going to give.
Barking up the wrong tree
You read about the thousand plus committees the government formed. This takes the cake. The Forest Department established seven committees between June 2007 and now. What is really amusing are names like this: ‘Identification of balance area of private forest’; ‘State level expert committee for identification of critical wildlife habitats’; ‘South Goa district committee’ – it was formed to identify private forest in South Goa; ‘State Board for Wildlife’; ‘Committee to review/ exam draft working plans of Forest Department’; ‘Governing body of State CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Management Planning Authority)’; ‘Steering committee of state CAMPA’; and ‘Executive committee of state CAMPA’. You ask but where’s the forest? Probably hidden under the forest of committees! The State Board for Wildlife has 39 members with the usual quota of MLAs (including Anil Salgaocar, the mine owner - an irony surely considering that it is excavation of mines that have destroyed forests!) and government babus (understandably). There’s also a cab owner who I think has a bar at Mollem and another, who is a pal of Filipe Neri Rodrigues, the Minister for Forests. But why the DG, Commandant, Coast Guard, Directors of Dabolim Airport, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Social Welfare? It’s like missing the trees for the forest.
Cost of the party
Digambar Kamat (April 2009-Feb 2010) Rs 22,07,748
Vishwajeet Rane (May-August 2009) Rs 4,54,282
Total: Rs 26,62,030
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Wine and Dine
Party Time -1
They spent Rs 93,42,544 (see earlier Flying Circus series) flying over a relatively short period of less than two years. Nobody knows why really or what was achieved from it, except the flying was primarily to Mumbai and Delhi, some of it to holiday destinations and pilgrim centres. The Gods must be desperate, you’d think except your montris felt getting you to pay for their absolution was okay! Next they let their hair down and partied till the cows came home. Your montris of course are nonchalant, showing no remorse in spending your valuable tax bucks for their politicking, holidaying, dining and even when they play pilgrims. You can’t even call it valuable any longer considering the way it’s blown up, in this the latest example, all of Rs 72,00,144 spent to entertain so-called VIP’s between April 2008 and February 2010. For your information, the meaning of VIPs in Goa could be anything from a bunch of sarpanches to officials who came to the 26th Sub-Junior National Aquatic Championships. I did say sub-junior, that’s how underused your tax bucks are. Because you probably think your valuable tax money, ironically called ‘revenue expenditure’ in the lingua franca of government, is being spent on real development. You could also say misspent, but the word misspent like the word ‘development’ too has lost its meaning in Goa. I had almost forgotten, but there was also this little matter of Rs 29,83,639 that the Protocol Department spent on accommodation and food for all VIP’s visiting Goa. That’s a neat Rs 1,01,83,783 and cooking if you add the unpaid bills (explained below).
Let's Party Officially
On April 3, 2009 and twice on April 4 Digambar Kamat blew Rs 3,850, Rs 3,850 and Rs 10,135 on tea and snacks supplied by Kebab Corner at his little used official Altinho residence at what was described as “official meetings”. On May 26 he threw that aquatic championship bash which cost you Rs 50,000. The real shall we say beneficiary was Bhingi Caterer, Ponda. The next month, on June 7, Kamat hosted a dinner for so-called ‘dignitaries’ of the 2nd Marathi Film Festival, 2009 at the Goa Marriott. Cost: Rs 1,42,832. Let’s take a tea break here and try and understand the words ‘official’ ‘dignitary’ and ‘host’. In the jargon of government, ‘official’ means all-inclusive or all-embracing and no questions asked. ‘Dignitary’ well, if I explained that in writing it would need parental guidance for your reading. ‘Host’, in Goa, well, at least it does not mean someone who invites and entertains guests and pays for it. The Goa Marriott was the venue for his next dinner (July 13) in honour of the chairman and members of the 5th Western Region Consultation. Don’t ask. I haven’t a clue. Cost: Rs 43,705. He dined the Chief Secretary at the Taj Exotica on July 18 spending Rs 45,437 and hosted a “budget presentation” dinner at Taj Vivanta on July 24. Cost: Rs 23,285. For all the talking his ministers and Congress MLA’s did during the 12 working days of the Assembly Session from July 21-August 6, 2009, Kamat rewarded them with tea and snacks served up by Kebab Corner at a cost of Rs 72,000. He was back to entertaining the next day August 7, throwing a dinner at Cidade-de-Goa for Narendra Jadhav, member of the Planning Commission. Cost: Rs 62,357. Tea and snacks for god-knows-who on Independence Day at his official residence (no, not the Margao home, that’s his unofficial official residence). Cost to you: Rs 17,000. Provider: Kebab corner.
Party On
On August 30, he threw Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest and “others” a party that cost you Rs 1,00,689 at the Cidade-de-Goa. Obviously! While, I sincerely doubt Jairam Ramesh partook of the food with the same gusto as the “others”, I wager he was used more as a scapegoat for the shindig. Unfortunately we don’t get to know who went to the party but the environment must have been good. On September 1, Kamat offered his hardworking MLA’s tea and snacks at a Congress Legislature Party meet at Altinho. Cost: Rs 7,200. Provider: Kebab Corner. He dined Prema Cariappa, Chairperson, Central Social Welfare Board, Delhi at the Sun & Sand, Panjim on October 10 that cost Rs 28,153. The chosen one, the Cidade-de-Goa was again the venue (October 12) for a dinner for the Secretary, Information & Broadcasting. Cost: Rs 39,852. Then there was dinner (October 28) for newspaper editors at Hotel Mandovi that cost Rs 19,491 and dinner (November 2) for Justice Swatantar Kumar, Chief Justice, Bombay High Court at Hotel Vivanta that cost Rs 54,601.
……And On
Hotel Vivanta was ‘graced’ again by Kamat and his invitees on November 11, 2009, this time believe it or not, in honour of the Council of Young Political Leaders who toted up a tab of Rs 1,16,505. Perhaps they were unaware they were gobbling up your tax bucks. Google says this is an organization dedicated to promoting diplomacy and mutual understanding between cultures through exchanges such as these! What on earth were they doing in Goa? Kamat’s fave hotel, the Cidade-de-Goa was the venue for a costly jamboree in honour of delegates from the Information & Broadcasting Ministry during the International Film Festival of India closing on December 3, 2009. Cost: Rs 11,91,337. If you think that’s a lot of good money ill spent on a bunch of gatecrashers who have been coming every year, mull over this. Kamat blew Rs 1,04,419 on a do on board Noah’s Ark in honour of Prakash Jaiswal, the Union Minister of State for Home. I have no idea who the other party animals were but surely they, like Noah’s guests, must have been invited in pairs (male/female) not because the Mandovi threatened to flood; because Jaiswal alone couldn’t have consumed Rs 1,04,419worth of food and booze.
Till the cows come home
On February 1, 2010 Kamat hosted a dinner for Ajay Maken, the Union Minister for State for Home Affairs at Taj Vivanta. On February 12 a dinner for ‘dignitaries’ and speakers at the DD Kosambe Festival of Ideas at Cidade-de-Goa and on February 23, a lunch to host that so-called pre-budget consultation meeting again. To think they even have to gorge on chicken kebab just to break their heads on how to spend your tax bucks! The venue for this was NH-17, Porvorim. The bills for these are awaited and so I can’t share that with you yet.
The condensed month of February, 2010 ended with a Rs 71,500 dinner thrown at the Majorda Beach Resort for some unnamed invitees on February 26. There was no hiatus in Feb for him because the very next night Kamat had a do for the retiring Inspector General of Police KD Singh at the Park Hyatt. Bills awaited. That’s five parties in 28 days! Now Singh, if you remember is that cop who introduced Russian belly dancers to the Anjuna cops and only came to Goa to build his Porvorim home. What a farewell!
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
They spent Rs 93,42,544 (see earlier Flying Circus series) flying over a relatively short period of less than two years. Nobody knows why really or what was achieved from it, except the flying was primarily to Mumbai and Delhi, some of it to holiday destinations and pilgrim centres. The Gods must be desperate, you’d think except your montris felt getting you to pay for their absolution was okay! Next they let their hair down and partied till the cows came home. Your montris of course are nonchalant, showing no remorse in spending your valuable tax bucks for their politicking, holidaying, dining and even when they play pilgrims. You can’t even call it valuable any longer considering the way it’s blown up, in this the latest example, all of Rs 72,00,144 spent to entertain so-called VIP’s between April 2008 and February 2010. For your information, the meaning of VIPs in Goa could be anything from a bunch of sarpanches to officials who came to the 26th Sub-Junior National Aquatic Championships. I did say sub-junior, that’s how underused your tax bucks are. Because you probably think your valuable tax money, ironically called ‘revenue expenditure’ in the lingua franca of government, is being spent on real development. You could also say misspent, but the word misspent like the word ‘development’ too has lost its meaning in Goa. I had almost forgotten, but there was also this little matter of Rs 29,83,639 that the Protocol Department spent on accommodation and food for all VIP’s visiting Goa. That’s a neat Rs 1,01,83,783 and cooking if you add the unpaid bills (explained below).
Let's Party Officially
On April 3, 2009 and twice on April 4 Digambar Kamat blew Rs 3,850, Rs 3,850 and Rs 10,135 on tea and snacks supplied by Kebab Corner at his little used official Altinho residence at what was described as “official meetings”. On May 26 he threw that aquatic championship bash which cost you Rs 50,000. The real shall we say beneficiary was Bhingi Caterer, Ponda. The next month, on June 7, Kamat hosted a dinner for so-called ‘dignitaries’ of the 2nd Marathi Film Festival, 2009 at the Goa Marriott. Cost: Rs 1,42,832. Let’s take a tea break here and try and understand the words ‘official’ ‘dignitary’ and ‘host’. In the jargon of government, ‘official’ means all-inclusive or all-embracing and no questions asked. ‘Dignitary’ well, if I explained that in writing it would need parental guidance for your reading. ‘Host’, in Goa, well, at least it does not mean someone who invites and entertains guests and pays for it. The Goa Marriott was the venue for his next dinner (July 13) in honour of the chairman and members of the 5th Western Region Consultation. Don’t ask. I haven’t a clue. Cost: Rs 43,705. He dined the Chief Secretary at the Taj Exotica on July 18 spending Rs 45,437 and hosted a “budget presentation” dinner at Taj Vivanta on July 24. Cost: Rs 23,285. For all the talking his ministers and Congress MLA’s did during the 12 working days of the Assembly Session from July 21-August 6, 2009, Kamat rewarded them with tea and snacks served up by Kebab Corner at a cost of Rs 72,000. He was back to entertaining the next day August 7, throwing a dinner at Cidade-de-Goa for Narendra Jadhav, member of the Planning Commission. Cost: Rs 62,357. Tea and snacks for god-knows-who on Independence Day at his official residence (no, not the Margao home, that’s his unofficial official residence). Cost to you: Rs 17,000. Provider: Kebab corner.
Party On
On August 30, he threw Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest and “others” a party that cost you Rs 1,00,689 at the Cidade-de-Goa. Obviously! While, I sincerely doubt Jairam Ramesh partook of the food with the same gusto as the “others”, I wager he was used more as a scapegoat for the shindig. Unfortunately we don’t get to know who went to the party but the environment must have been good. On September 1, Kamat offered his hardworking MLA’s tea and snacks at a Congress Legislature Party meet at Altinho. Cost: Rs 7,200. Provider: Kebab Corner. He dined Prema Cariappa, Chairperson, Central Social Welfare Board, Delhi at the Sun & Sand, Panjim on October 10 that cost Rs 28,153. The chosen one, the Cidade-de-Goa was again the venue (October 12) for a dinner for the Secretary, Information & Broadcasting. Cost: Rs 39,852. Then there was dinner (October 28) for newspaper editors at Hotel Mandovi that cost Rs 19,491 and dinner (November 2) for Justice Swatantar Kumar, Chief Justice, Bombay High Court at Hotel Vivanta that cost Rs 54,601.
……And On
Hotel Vivanta was ‘graced’ again by Kamat and his invitees on November 11, 2009, this time believe it or not, in honour of the Council of Young Political Leaders who toted up a tab of Rs 1,16,505. Perhaps they were unaware they were gobbling up your tax bucks. Google says this is an organization dedicated to promoting diplomacy and mutual understanding between cultures through exchanges such as these! What on earth were they doing in Goa? Kamat’s fave hotel, the Cidade-de-Goa was the venue for a costly jamboree in honour of delegates from the Information & Broadcasting Ministry during the International Film Festival of India closing on December 3, 2009. Cost: Rs 11,91,337. If you think that’s a lot of good money ill spent on a bunch of gatecrashers who have been coming every year, mull over this. Kamat blew Rs 1,04,419 on a do on board Noah’s Ark in honour of Prakash Jaiswal, the Union Minister of State for Home. I have no idea who the other party animals were but surely they, like Noah’s guests, must have been invited in pairs (male/female) not because the Mandovi threatened to flood; because Jaiswal alone couldn’t have consumed Rs 1,04,419worth of food and booze.
Till the cows come home
On February 1, 2010 Kamat hosted a dinner for Ajay Maken, the Union Minister for State for Home Affairs at Taj Vivanta. On February 12 a dinner for ‘dignitaries’ and speakers at the DD Kosambe Festival of Ideas at Cidade-de-Goa and on February 23, a lunch to host that so-called pre-budget consultation meeting again. To think they even have to gorge on chicken kebab just to break their heads on how to spend your tax bucks! The venue for this was NH-17, Porvorim. The bills for these are awaited and so I can’t share that with you yet.
The condensed month of February, 2010 ended with a Rs 71,500 dinner thrown at the Majorda Beach Resort for some unnamed invitees on February 26. There was no hiatus in Feb for him because the very next night Kamat had a do for the retiring Inspector General of Police KD Singh at the Park Hyatt. Bills awaited. That’s five parties in 28 days! Now Singh, if you remember is that cop who introduced Russian belly dancers to the Anjuna cops and only came to Goa to build his Porvorim home. What a farewell!
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Sunday, July 18, 2010
No Pain, all Gain?
UP STETHOSCOPE
Suspecting they are being scammed, at least 18 insurance companies, including four in the public sector, have delisted more than 150 hospitals in Delhi and the National Capital Region (or NCR, which is basically the Delhi region) from their designated list for Mediclaim insurance. Could a virus strain of this scam have already affected the hospital scheme that entitles you to cashless medical facilities in Goa? The news broke last week and the position on this could change. Your periscope (like a submarine) should be up and looking. In this case, you would need a stethoscope to grope for the evidence. You should like a doctor be able to feel the heavy breathing of anticipation within the corridors of government officialdom and the medical fraternity. The pounding of heart beats. The hard medical facts are, your government reimbursed a huge Rs 11,64,02,329 in 2008-2009 to 16 of the 21 empanelled hospitals under Mediclaim. In 2009-2010 up till February 28, 2010 the government paid Rs 8,04,16,423 to 18 of the 21 hospitals under the Mediclaim scheme (see list for actual details). The government owes an additional Rs 5,73,14,125 to 14 hospitals for the period 2009-10. All in all that makes it a mammoth Rs 25,41,32,877 the government paid a clutch of hospitals. You sense some fiddling here? O course, you do, because either we are a very, very ill community and must be all laid up which would explain the sussegad in us. Or, as you rightly diagnosed, it must be a few hundred unwell who are making an even smaller group of people glowing with good health extremely rich with all that moolah. Who said wealth does not bring happiness? Because even a pinprick of the Rs 25,41,32,877 has to make you feel good. Call it wellness.
Dr. DIAGNOSTIX
A doctor’s diagnosis is that the list itself of sick persons who are asked by the Directorate of Health Services to reimburse the hospitals directly is very small. The reasons are obvious. But the list of sick given the benefit of a cashless transaction is huge. The reasons are obvious again. No transparency at this level means more cash for officialdom and hospitals. In an ironic way cashless for you means more cash for them. That’s why the 18 insurance companies have a deep suspicion and have acted before the virus spreads. Let’s see what happens in Goa next.
UNDER INTENSIVE CARE
HOSPITALS IN GOA
In the two financial years 2008-09, 2009-10 (up to February 28) Apollo Victor Hospital, Margao was paid Rs 3,76,98,886 and Rs 2,31,76,294; Om Urology, Panjim Rs 16,93,772 (08-09 only); Chodankar Hursing Home, Porvorim Rs 70,37,216 and Rs 31,60,789; Goa Manipal Hospital, Dona Paula Rs 2,80,573 and Rs 8,34,672; NUSI Hospital, Cuncolim Rs 41,91,702 and Rs 2,56,538; Vivus, SMRC, Vasco Rs 80,10,911 and Rs 37,36,403; Vrundavan Hospital, Mapusa Rs 28,01,801 and Rs 40,12,195; Grace Cardia Care, Margao Rs 4,97,927 (09-10 only); SMRC Vasco Rs 95,449 (09-10 only).
HOSPITALS OUTSIDE GOA
KLES Hospital, Belgaum Rs 2,85,53,156 and Rs 1,62,38,625; RG Stone, Mumbai Rs 29,62,421 (08-09 only); Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai Rs 72,65,972 and Rs 75,05,163; Wockhardt Hospital, Bangalore Rs 77,96,635 and Rs 54,64,240; Kasturba Hospital, Manipal Rs 14,00,117 and Rs 17,47,054; Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune Rs 3,11,715 and Rs 1,00,077; Sankara Netralaya, Chennai Rs 7,49,837 and Rs 5,96,368; Santosham Chest, Chennai Rs 84,743 (08-09 only); Neogen, Bangalore Rs 55,62,872 and Rs 1,24,852; Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai Rs 2,63,507 (09-10 only); Manipal Heart Foundation, Bangalore Rs 1,18,796 (09-10 only); Belgaum Cancer, Belgaum Rs 1,14,474 (09-10 only).
REIMBURSED IN 2008-09 Rs 11,64,02,329
REIMBURSED IN 2009-10 Rs 08,04,16,423
TOTAL: Rs 19,68,18,752
REIMBURSEMENT PENDING WITH GOVERNMENT (2009-10)
Apollo Victor Hospital, Margao Rs 1,75,55,000
Chodankar Nursing Home, Porvorim Rs 9,08,665
Goa Manipal Hospital, Dona Paula Rs 10,45,000
Vivus, SMRC, Vasco Rs 50,78,000
Vrundavan Hospital, Mapusa Rs 15,05,000
Grace Cardia Care, Margao Rs 5,60,000
Campal Clinic, Panjim Rs 41,60,000
KLES Hospital, Belgaum Rs 1,43,40,000
Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai Rs 6,55,000
Wockhardt Hospital, Bangalore Rs 24,28,000
Kasturba Hospital, Manipal Rs 6,65,000
Sankara Netralaya, Chennai Rs 4,25,000
Neogen, Bangalore Rs 78,09,460
Belgaum Cancer, Belgaum Rs 1,80,000
TOTAL: Rs 5,73,14,125
GRAND TOTAL: Rs 25,41,32,877
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Suspecting they are being scammed, at least 18 insurance companies, including four in the public sector, have delisted more than 150 hospitals in Delhi and the National Capital Region (or NCR, which is basically the Delhi region) from their designated list for Mediclaim insurance. Could a virus strain of this scam have already affected the hospital scheme that entitles you to cashless medical facilities in Goa? The news broke last week and the position on this could change. Your periscope (like a submarine) should be up and looking. In this case, you would need a stethoscope to grope for the evidence. You should like a doctor be able to feel the heavy breathing of anticipation within the corridors of government officialdom and the medical fraternity. The pounding of heart beats. The hard medical facts are, your government reimbursed a huge Rs 11,64,02,329 in 2008-2009 to 16 of the 21 empanelled hospitals under Mediclaim. In 2009-2010 up till February 28, 2010 the government paid Rs 8,04,16,423 to 18 of the 21 hospitals under the Mediclaim scheme (see list for actual details). The government owes an additional Rs 5,73,14,125 to 14 hospitals for the period 2009-10. All in all that makes it a mammoth Rs 25,41,32,877 the government paid a clutch of hospitals. You sense some fiddling here? O course, you do, because either we are a very, very ill community and must be all laid up which would explain the sussegad in us. Or, as you rightly diagnosed, it must be a few hundred unwell who are making an even smaller group of people glowing with good health extremely rich with all that moolah. Who said wealth does not bring happiness? Because even a pinprick of the Rs 25,41,32,877 has to make you feel good. Call it wellness.
Dr. DIAGNOSTIX
A doctor’s diagnosis is that the list itself of sick persons who are asked by the Directorate of Health Services to reimburse the hospitals directly is very small. The reasons are obvious. But the list of sick given the benefit of a cashless transaction is huge. The reasons are obvious again. No transparency at this level means more cash for officialdom and hospitals. In an ironic way cashless for you means more cash for them. That’s why the 18 insurance companies have a deep suspicion and have acted before the virus spreads. Let’s see what happens in Goa next.
UNDER INTENSIVE CARE
HOSPITALS IN GOA
In the two financial years 2008-09, 2009-10 (up to February 28) Apollo Victor Hospital, Margao was paid Rs 3,76,98,886 and Rs 2,31,76,294; Om Urology, Panjim Rs 16,93,772 (08-09 only); Chodankar Hursing Home, Porvorim Rs 70,37,216 and Rs 31,60,789; Goa Manipal Hospital, Dona Paula Rs 2,80,573 and Rs 8,34,672; NUSI Hospital, Cuncolim Rs 41,91,702 and Rs 2,56,538; Vivus, SMRC, Vasco Rs 80,10,911 and Rs 37,36,403; Vrundavan Hospital, Mapusa Rs 28,01,801 and Rs 40,12,195; Grace Cardia Care, Margao Rs 4,97,927 (09-10 only); SMRC Vasco Rs 95,449 (09-10 only).
HOSPITALS OUTSIDE GOA
KLES Hospital, Belgaum Rs 2,85,53,156 and Rs 1,62,38,625; RG Stone, Mumbai Rs 29,62,421 (08-09 only); Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai Rs 72,65,972 and Rs 75,05,163; Wockhardt Hospital, Bangalore Rs 77,96,635 and Rs 54,64,240; Kasturba Hospital, Manipal Rs 14,00,117 and Rs 17,47,054; Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune Rs 3,11,715 and Rs 1,00,077; Sankara Netralaya, Chennai Rs 7,49,837 and Rs 5,96,368; Santosham Chest, Chennai Rs 84,743 (08-09 only); Neogen, Bangalore Rs 55,62,872 and Rs 1,24,852; Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai Rs 2,63,507 (09-10 only); Manipal Heart Foundation, Bangalore Rs 1,18,796 (09-10 only); Belgaum Cancer, Belgaum Rs 1,14,474 (09-10 only).
REIMBURSED IN 2008-09 Rs 11,64,02,329
REIMBURSED IN 2009-10 Rs 08,04,16,423
TOTAL: Rs 19,68,18,752
REIMBURSEMENT PENDING WITH GOVERNMENT (2009-10)
Apollo Victor Hospital, Margao Rs 1,75,55,000
Chodankar Nursing Home, Porvorim Rs 9,08,665
Goa Manipal Hospital, Dona Paula Rs 10,45,000
Vivus, SMRC, Vasco Rs 50,78,000
Vrundavan Hospital, Mapusa Rs 15,05,000
Grace Cardia Care, Margao Rs 5,60,000
Campal Clinic, Panjim Rs 41,60,000
KLES Hospital, Belgaum Rs 1,43,40,000
Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai Rs 6,55,000
Wockhardt Hospital, Bangalore Rs 24,28,000
Kasturba Hospital, Manipal Rs 6,65,000
Sankara Netralaya, Chennai Rs 4,25,000
Neogen, Bangalore Rs 78,09,460
Belgaum Cancer, Belgaum Rs 1,80,000
TOTAL: Rs 5,73,14,125
GRAND TOTAL: Rs 25,41,32,877
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Flying Circus VIII
Government of gatecrashers
It’s terrifying the way the Congress government acquires land, your land. One way to avoid that would be to sell your land, if you have sizeable tracts of it, that is, and if it lies next to or near an existing industrial estate. Of course if you are a bhatcar with land along the coast and you haven’t yet sold it, all you need to do is look heavenwards and you will spot those hundreds of Delhi vultures hovering in the skies, claws sharpened, waiting to zoom in on your land. That settled, here’s why you must sell your land under the first category before the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Goa’s home-cloned land-predator casts its covetous glances your way. It is looking to buy a simple matter of just 20 lakh sq mts. And for what? A pittance is what you will get if you sell.
Pressure cooker effect
The IDC told “the newspaper you can trust” that it intends to acquire 20 lakh sq mts of land, your land, near various industrial estates. When this particular daily gets to know first; it’s either the real thing/ a test case to gauge public sentiment/ or both. There’s a background to this. If you live, god forbid, in the villages say for example between the Verna industrial estate and say a village like Utorda along the coast; you will know soon what is meant by the pressure cooker effect. I give these two examples -- Verna, because of its burgeoning growth that affects the villagers in its vicinity; Utorda, because if you drive down to the Uttorda beach, you will see for yourself that three Delhities have bought several lakh sq mts on either side of the road choking off the beach to villagers. To the left and right of the road is the existing Heritage Resort. Abutting all that is owned by Heritage on the left of the road, is more land owned by Goa Inn and even it has a bit of land ahead of the Heritage property and touching the road. So, on the left you have Heritage and Goa Inn. On the left of the road and ahead of the Heritage property is property owned by the Competent Group (further up the road) close to the beach. So, on the right you have Heritage again and Competent. It’s easier to understand if you were standing there. But trust me all that is left for the locals to enjoy is the narrow road. I choose Verna, because IDC has already acquired land there. Just for the record, the IDC has acquired a mind boggling 70,49,594 sq mts so far. That’s why I call it frightful.
Final Episode of Profligacy
So is this bill of Rs 93,82,850, your montris stitched you up with and which ends the Flying Circus series. Talk of profligacy! Are you not appalled at how Rs 93,82,850 can be spent by a dozen montris, without a care in the world. Still, relief could be impending. Vishwajeet Rane is back in the Congress, maybe Babush (who is also back in the Congress) has abandoned the plan to dislodge Digambar Kamat from within, since they (he, Rane and others) could not do it when they cobbled together the G-7 and saw coup after coup fail. The G-7 seems to have lost its fizz completely. Mickky' Pacheco has jaundice (and that’s the least of his problems, even he will freely acknowledge), Babush and Vishwajeet are now sleeping with the enemy. G-7 has shrunk to G-4. And it will be a year at least before they get restive. Happy days are here again.
Ramkrishna (Sudhin) Dhavlikar, Minister for Transport
2008-The Road Most Travelled
He began his flying dashing off on 01-02 April to Delhi, Rs 29,690+50, total Rs 30,210; and when his mission obviously failed, he turned to prayer because on 05-08 May he flew Mumbai-Pune-Shirdi-Pune, and you footed the bill of Rs 24,288+847, total Rs 25,135. He was back to the routine thing: 27-30 May, Delhi-Mumbai, Rs 25,245+903, total Rs 26,148. His next flight obviously a junket, saw him board a Delhi- He wasH
Jammu-Mumbai flight on 18-21 June, Rs 32,236+788, total Rs 33,024. 26-27 June, Delhi, Rs 12,405+355, total Rs 12,760. Things were not working out for the rebellious G-7 or things simply got overheated (remember, even Churchill was going to join up if he had another shot at being CM) going by his frequent flying in July and August: 08-10 July, Delhi, Rs 22,750+615, total Rs 23,365; 16-17 July, Mumbai, Rs 12,830+520, total Rs 13,350; 25-28 July, Pune-Mumbai, Rs 15,045+703, total Rs 15,748; 05-07 August, Delhi, Rs 31,285+702, total Rs 31,987;13-14 August, Mumbai, Rs 19,105+355, total Rs 19,460; 25-27 August, Delhi-Mumbai, Rs 26,460+412, total Rs 26,872. That ‘s six flights in two months all done by Business Class because Sudhin Dhavlikar likes doing his private business in a classy way. That too when you and I are paying. 14-17 October, Mumbai, Rs 15,970+797, total Rs 16,767; 27-29 December, Mumbai, total Rs 9,130.
2009 - The DA King
He began the year doing the usual in-out of Delhi/Mumbai. But look at the DA on one of his trips. It exceeded the fare cost. 06-09 January, Delhi, total Rs 31,760; 12-14 January, Mumbai, Rs 9,238+9,807, total Rs 19,045; 27-30 January, Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai, total Rs 16,146. 27 Feb-03 March, Chennai, Rs 8,646+17,175, total Rs 25,821. Look again at the DA of Rs 17,174, it’s almost double the flight cost. 13-15 March, Delhi, total Rs 18,045. On 29 May-01 June he flew Delhi-Mumbai for Rs 18,553 again getting paid a huge DA of Rs 16,212 total Rs 34,765 which easily earns him the title of highest DA earner in the category of montri frequent fliers, yes Sir, there’s more to come in other categories; because on 06-09 July he flew Pune-Delhi-Mumbai at a cost to you of Rs 20,051 and was paid DA of Rs 7,195 plus Rs 61 as ‘other’ expenses for a total of Rs 28,107. 05-07 September, Delhi, Rs 9,206+520, total Rs 9,726; 21-24 October, Kochi, total Rs 9,808; 20-21 November, Mumbai, Rs 6,879+442, total Rs 7,321.
2010
11-12 February, Mumbai, total Rs 11,925
Total: Rs 4,97,105
The Flying Club Cost
Vishwajeet Rane Rs 17,56,397
Churchill Alemao Rs 14,28,633
Digambar Kamat Rs 13,26,144
Joaquim Alemao Rs 12,34,442
Mickky Pacheco Rs 11,98,946
Babush Monseratte Rs 6,48,115
Babu Azgaonkar Rs 1,87,986
Dayanand Narvekar Rs 1,36,275
Ravi Naik Rs 4,08,749
Filipe Rodrigues Rs 40,306
Jose Philip D’Souza Rs 4,79,446
Sudhin Dhavlikar Rs 4,97,105
Grand Total: Rs 93,42,544
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
It’s terrifying the way the Congress government acquires land, your land. One way to avoid that would be to sell your land, if you have sizeable tracts of it, that is, and if it lies next to or near an existing industrial estate. Of course if you are a bhatcar with land along the coast and you haven’t yet sold it, all you need to do is look heavenwards and you will spot those hundreds of Delhi vultures hovering in the skies, claws sharpened, waiting to zoom in on your land. That settled, here’s why you must sell your land under the first category before the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Goa’s home-cloned land-predator casts its covetous glances your way. It is looking to buy a simple matter of just 20 lakh sq mts. And for what? A pittance is what you will get if you sell.
Pressure cooker effect
The IDC told “the newspaper you can trust” that it intends to acquire 20 lakh sq mts of land, your land, near various industrial estates. When this particular daily gets to know first; it’s either the real thing/ a test case to gauge public sentiment/ or both. There’s a background to this. If you live, god forbid, in the villages say for example between the Verna industrial estate and say a village like Utorda along the coast; you will know soon what is meant by the pressure cooker effect. I give these two examples -- Verna, because of its burgeoning growth that affects the villagers in its vicinity; Utorda, because if you drive down to the Uttorda beach, you will see for yourself that three Delhities have bought several lakh sq mts on either side of the road choking off the beach to villagers. To the left and right of the road is the existing Heritage Resort. Abutting all that is owned by Heritage on the left of the road, is more land owned by Goa Inn and even it has a bit of land ahead of the Heritage property and touching the road. So, on the left you have Heritage and Goa Inn. On the left of the road and ahead of the Heritage property is property owned by the Competent Group (further up the road) close to the beach. So, on the right you have Heritage again and Competent. It’s easier to understand if you were standing there. But trust me all that is left for the locals to enjoy is the narrow road. I choose Verna, because IDC has already acquired land there. Just for the record, the IDC has acquired a mind boggling 70,49,594 sq mts so far. That’s why I call it frightful.
Final Episode of Profligacy
So is this bill of Rs 93,82,850, your montris stitched you up with and which ends the Flying Circus series. Talk of profligacy! Are you not appalled at how Rs 93,82,850 can be spent by a dozen montris, without a care in the world. Still, relief could be impending. Vishwajeet Rane is back in the Congress, maybe Babush (who is also back in the Congress) has abandoned the plan to dislodge Digambar Kamat from within, since they (he, Rane and others) could not do it when they cobbled together the G-7 and saw coup after coup fail. The G-7 seems to have lost its fizz completely. Mickky' Pacheco has jaundice (and that’s the least of his problems, even he will freely acknowledge), Babush and Vishwajeet are now sleeping with the enemy. G-7 has shrunk to G-4. And it will be a year at least before they get restive. Happy days are here again.
Ramkrishna (Sudhin) Dhavlikar, Minister for Transport
2008-The Road Most Travelled
He began his flying dashing off on 01-02 April to Delhi, Rs 29,690+50, total Rs 30,210; and when his mission obviously failed, he turned to prayer because on 05-08 May he flew Mumbai-Pune-Shirdi-Pune, and you footed the bill of Rs 24,288+847, total Rs 25,135. He was back to the routine thing: 27-30 May, Delhi-Mumbai, Rs 25,245+903, total Rs 26,148. His next flight obviously a junket, saw him board a Delhi- He wasH
Jammu-Mumbai flight on 18-21 June, Rs 32,236+788, total Rs 33,024. 26-27 June, Delhi, Rs 12,405+355, total Rs 12,760. Things were not working out for the rebellious G-7 or things simply got overheated (remember, even Churchill was going to join up if he had another shot at being CM) going by his frequent flying in July and August: 08-10 July, Delhi, Rs 22,750+615, total Rs 23,365; 16-17 July, Mumbai, Rs 12,830+520, total Rs 13,350; 25-28 July, Pune-Mumbai, Rs 15,045+703, total Rs 15,748; 05-07 August, Delhi, Rs 31,285+702, total Rs 31,987;13-14 August, Mumbai, Rs 19,105+355, total Rs 19,460; 25-27 August, Delhi-Mumbai, Rs 26,460+412, total Rs 26,872. That ‘s six flights in two months all done by Business Class because Sudhin Dhavlikar likes doing his private business in a classy way. That too when you and I are paying. 14-17 October, Mumbai, Rs 15,970+797, total Rs 16,767; 27-29 December, Mumbai, total Rs 9,130.
2009 - The DA King
He began the year doing the usual in-out of Delhi/Mumbai. But look at the DA on one of his trips. It exceeded the fare cost. 06-09 January, Delhi, total Rs 31,760; 12-14 January, Mumbai, Rs 9,238+9,807, total Rs 19,045; 27-30 January, Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai, total Rs 16,146. 27 Feb-03 March, Chennai, Rs 8,646+17,175, total Rs 25,821. Look again at the DA of Rs 17,174, it’s almost double the flight cost. 13-15 March, Delhi, total Rs 18,045. On 29 May-01 June he flew Delhi-Mumbai for Rs 18,553 again getting paid a huge DA of Rs 16,212 total Rs 34,765 which easily earns him the title of highest DA earner in the category of montri frequent fliers, yes Sir, there’s more to come in other categories; because on 06-09 July he flew Pune-Delhi-Mumbai at a cost to you of Rs 20,051 and was paid DA of Rs 7,195 plus Rs 61 as ‘other’ expenses for a total of Rs 28,107. 05-07 September, Delhi, Rs 9,206+520, total Rs 9,726; 21-24 October, Kochi, total Rs 9,808; 20-21 November, Mumbai, Rs 6,879+442, total Rs 7,321.
2010
11-12 February, Mumbai, total Rs 11,925
Total: Rs 4,97,105
The Flying Club Cost
Vishwajeet Rane Rs 17,56,397
Churchill Alemao Rs 14,28,633
Digambar Kamat Rs 13,26,144
Joaquim Alemao Rs 12,34,442
Mickky Pacheco Rs 11,98,946
Babush Monseratte Rs 6,48,115
Babu Azgaonkar Rs 1,87,986
Dayanand Narvekar Rs 1,36,275
Ravi Naik Rs 4,08,749
Filipe Rodrigues Rs 40,306
Jose Philip D’Souza Rs 4,79,446
Sudhin Dhavlikar Rs 4,97,105
Grand Total: Rs 93,42,544
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Flying Circus VII
Will he upgrade?
Jose Philip D’Souza, Minister for Revenue
Mercifully, he is not much of a frequent flier. He made 24 flights during that same period. But, now that he has become the National Congress President, heaven help us! Pray that his fairly regular patronage of Economy Class (ten of 24 flights) does not change.
2008 High Maintenance
06-07 May, Mumbai-Delhi, Rs 16,463+355, total Rs 16,818; 10-19, May, Mumbai-Delhi, Rs 31,538+2,600, total Rs 34,138; a one-dayer on 5 May flying Mumbai-Bangalore, Rs 13,190+95, total Rs 13,285; 02-03 July, Mumbai, Rs 8,400+442, total Rs 8,842. His next five flights including one in 2009 (all but one Economy Class) took him to Delhi, that I speculate happened at the behest of the National Congress Party or the G-7 and that as in the case of the Dhavlikar Brothers Inc, is costing us plenty. The Dhavlikar Brothers, you would know if you have been following this column in the past, burnt up a lot of your tax bucks on account of all the litigation over the disqualification petitions that were fought in the Supreme Court because of them. 1) 25-26 July, Delhi, Rs 31,055+520, total Rs 31,575. 2) 17-18 August, Delhi, Rs 27,432+405, total Rs 27,837. 3) 11-12 September, Delhi, Rs 24,637+405, total Rs 25,042. 4) 22-23 October, Delhi, Rs 24,195+318, total Rs 24,513. So not only do you shell out big bucks to maintain them in high office but also when they get flirty with other political parties.
2009 Missing in Goa
5) 06-08 August, Delhi, total Rs 11,850. As you can see, all but this flight were the typical quick overnight visitations to Delhi, like quickies - in and out- just about enough time to pay obeisance to their political masters or, be told come back again which I am informed happens frequently. If the CM and Vishawajeet Rane are regulars at Tirupati, then Churchill, Joaquim and even Jose Philip put the shrine of Annai Velankani in Nagapattinam on their agenda. Which is why you see them heading to Trichy, the closest airport to Nagapattinam.
Jose Philip’s quick flights to Delhi dominated the year, like so; 19-20 January, Mumbai-Delhi, Rs 24,585+442, total Rs 25,027; 28-29 January, Delhi, total Rs 14,460; 28 Feb-01 March, total Rs 13,799. In fact Jose Philip probably spent more time in Delhi in January and in March than the two central ministers MK Alagiri and Mamata Banerjee who regularly go AWOL even during cabinet meetings. 03-06 March, Mumbai-Lucknow-Mumbai, total Rs 20,458; 11-13 March, Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai, total Rs 24,755; 30 April-2 May, Mumbai, total Rs 8,458; 26 May-01 June, Madras-Trichy-Madras, Rs 28,808+1,395, total 30,203; 02-03 June, Delhi-Mumbai, Rs 16,367+520, total Rs 16,887; 18-20 August, Delhi, Rs 15,006+665, total Rs 15,671; 29-30 August, Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai, Rs 28,200+483, total Rs 28,683; 25-27 September, Mumbai, Rs 8,785+702, total Rs 9,487. He flew thrice to Mumbai/Delhi in a single month: 1) 06-10 December, Mumbai, Rs 7,074+1,222, total Rs 8,296. 2) 19-20 December, Delhi, Rs 16,250+405, total Rs 16,655. 3) A one-dayer to Delhi on 21 December that cost you Rs 33,599. And another one-dayer to Mumbai on 8 January 2010 that cost you Rs 17,608. And like me you might wonder what more can our montris achieve in a day in Delhi or Mumbai that cannot be done over the mobile. Is it because neither side trusts each other, and therefore need to eyeball each other? After all, the carry-case lie detector like the portable blood pressure monitor hasn’t been invented yet.
The Flying Club Cost so far:
Vishwajeet Rane Rs 17,56,397
Churchill Alemao Rs 14,28,633
Digambar Kamat Rs 13,26,144
Joaquim Alemao Rs 12,34,442
Mickky Pacheco Rs 11,98,946
Babush Monseratte Rs 6,48,115
Babu Azgaonkar Rs 1,87,986
Dayanand Narvekar Rs 1,36,275
Ravi Naik Rs 4,08,749
Filipe Rodrigues Rs 40,306
Jose Philip D’Souza Rs 4,79,446
Grand Total: Rs 88,45,439
“It is a Bullshit”
Famous last words of drug peddler-in-denial Yaniv Benhaim a.k.a Atala. He used them to describe almost everything except himself, which if he did, would be the only truth he ever spoke. Famous last words because by the time you read this, he would have flown the coop. If he hasn’t it is only because Atala has decided to stay back to learn more from our politicians courtesy the Goa Police deliberately bungling the investigation. Where do you think he learnt to blame the media for getting into a spot and also to deny afterwards that a top politician’s son is involved in drug peddling? Huh, where? It’s from our politicians. Look at it this way, stay back and he gets to at least learn which Notary Public has a valid license if push comes to shove and he ends up needing an affidavit to be notarised. If he sticks around Ravi Naik and Digambar Kamat) can use his ‘innocence’ as a reference on Goa being drug-free. Why, he could even join the Congress which is looking for recruits, now that he is ‘free from all sin.’ Where do you think the police got the idea of going to Sweden to interrogate the Israeli’s ex-girlfriend Lucky Farmhouse? From the Flying Circus, of course. With a name like that, the trip to Sweden would be a breeze. I am not being sarcastic. There is a cheaper solution, put him through a lie detector. Lie detectors don’t take BS.
P.S. Take note, he didn’t deny his allegation that certain journos were on his payroll. Interesting!
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Jose Philip D’Souza, Minister for Revenue
Mercifully, he is not much of a frequent flier. He made 24 flights during that same period. But, now that he has become the National Congress President, heaven help us! Pray that his fairly regular patronage of Economy Class (ten of 24 flights) does not change.
2008 High Maintenance
06-07 May, Mumbai-Delhi, Rs 16,463+355, total Rs 16,818; 10-19, May, Mumbai-Delhi, Rs 31,538+2,600, total Rs 34,138; a one-dayer on 5 May flying Mumbai-Bangalore, Rs 13,190+95, total Rs 13,285; 02-03 July, Mumbai, Rs 8,400+442, total Rs 8,842. His next five flights including one in 2009 (all but one Economy Class) took him to Delhi, that I speculate happened at the behest of the National Congress Party or the G-7 and that as in the case of the Dhavlikar Brothers Inc, is costing us plenty. The Dhavlikar Brothers, you would know if you have been following this column in the past, burnt up a lot of your tax bucks on account of all the litigation over the disqualification petitions that were fought in the Supreme Court because of them. 1) 25-26 July, Delhi, Rs 31,055+520, total Rs 31,575. 2) 17-18 August, Delhi, Rs 27,432+405, total Rs 27,837. 3) 11-12 September, Delhi, Rs 24,637+405, total Rs 25,042. 4) 22-23 October, Delhi, Rs 24,195+318, total Rs 24,513. So not only do you shell out big bucks to maintain them in high office but also when they get flirty with other political parties.
2009 Missing in Goa
5) 06-08 August, Delhi, total Rs 11,850. As you can see, all but this flight were the typical quick overnight visitations to Delhi, like quickies - in and out- just about enough time to pay obeisance to their political masters or, be told come back again which I am informed happens frequently. If the CM and Vishawajeet Rane are regulars at Tirupati, then Churchill, Joaquim and even Jose Philip put the shrine of Annai Velankani in Nagapattinam on their agenda. Which is why you see them heading to Trichy, the closest airport to Nagapattinam.
Jose Philip’s quick flights to Delhi dominated the year, like so; 19-20 January, Mumbai-Delhi, Rs 24,585+442, total Rs 25,027; 28-29 January, Delhi, total Rs 14,460; 28 Feb-01 March, total Rs 13,799. In fact Jose Philip probably spent more time in Delhi in January and in March than the two central ministers MK Alagiri and Mamata Banerjee who regularly go AWOL even during cabinet meetings. 03-06 March, Mumbai-Lucknow-Mumbai, total Rs 20,458; 11-13 March, Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai, total Rs 24,755; 30 April-2 May, Mumbai, total Rs 8,458; 26 May-01 June, Madras-Trichy-Madras, Rs 28,808+1,395, total 30,203; 02-03 June, Delhi-Mumbai, Rs 16,367+520, total Rs 16,887; 18-20 August, Delhi, Rs 15,006+665, total Rs 15,671; 29-30 August, Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai, Rs 28,200+483, total Rs 28,683; 25-27 September, Mumbai, Rs 8,785+702, total Rs 9,487. He flew thrice to Mumbai/Delhi in a single month: 1) 06-10 December, Mumbai, Rs 7,074+1,222, total Rs 8,296. 2) 19-20 December, Delhi, Rs 16,250+405, total Rs 16,655. 3) A one-dayer to Delhi on 21 December that cost you Rs 33,599. And another one-dayer to Mumbai on 8 January 2010 that cost you Rs 17,608. And like me you might wonder what more can our montris achieve in a day in Delhi or Mumbai that cannot be done over the mobile. Is it because neither side trusts each other, and therefore need to eyeball each other? After all, the carry-case lie detector like the portable blood pressure monitor hasn’t been invented yet.
The Flying Club Cost so far:
Vishwajeet Rane Rs 17,56,397
Churchill Alemao Rs 14,28,633
Digambar Kamat Rs 13,26,144
Joaquim Alemao Rs 12,34,442
Mickky Pacheco Rs 11,98,946
Babush Monseratte Rs 6,48,115
Babu Azgaonkar Rs 1,87,986
Dayanand Narvekar Rs 1,36,275
Ravi Naik Rs 4,08,749
Filipe Rodrigues Rs 40,306
Jose Philip D’Souza Rs 4,79,446
Grand Total: Rs 88,45,439
“It is a Bullshit”
Famous last words of drug peddler-in-denial Yaniv Benhaim a.k.a Atala. He used them to describe almost everything except himself, which if he did, would be the only truth he ever spoke. Famous last words because by the time you read this, he would have flown the coop. If he hasn’t it is only because Atala has decided to stay back to learn more from our politicians courtesy the Goa Police deliberately bungling the investigation. Where do you think he learnt to blame the media for getting into a spot and also to deny afterwards that a top politician’s son is involved in drug peddling? Huh, where? It’s from our politicians. Look at it this way, stay back and he gets to at least learn which Notary Public has a valid license if push comes to shove and he ends up needing an affidavit to be notarised. If he sticks around Ravi Naik and Digambar Kamat) can use his ‘innocence’ as a reference on Goa being drug-free. Why, he could even join the Congress which is looking for recruits, now that he is ‘free from all sin.’ Where do you think the police got the idea of going to Sweden to interrogate the Israeli’s ex-girlfriend Lucky Farmhouse? From the Flying Circus, of course. With a name like that, the trip to Sweden would be a breeze. I am not being sarcastic. There is a cheaper solution, put him through a lie detector. Lie detectors don’t take BS.
P.S. Take note, he didn’t deny his allegation that certain journos were on his payroll. Interesting!
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
Monday, June 28, 2010
Flying Circus VI
Thanksgiving to the Lord
I said it before and I say it again. Tirupati is like a magnet for many of our montris and our chief montri. He was there on June 23. It’s not a coincidence that Kamath was there days after Babush merged his UGDP into the Congress giving the Grand Old Party 19 MLAs. That’s not all. Kamath is secure now that he has co-opted the “CEO” of the Group of Seven. No wonder he was in Tirumala to give thanks.
Mumbai, here I come
Manohar ‘Babu’ Azgaonkar, Minister for Panchayat Raj & RDA
The flight plans of our montris tend to sometimes reveal a little bit about them, like for instance, visiting Mumbai is like an adrenalin rush for many. It varies too. Nilkanth Halarnkar got his rush recently promising everything he wasn’t, for the love of God, ever going to keep but had to say because they think you and I are dimwitted. Other montris get their rush flying Business Class. It’s free in any case. Babu Azgaonkar gets his, flying to Mumbai. Of his fifteen flights made between April 2008-January 2010, ten were made to Mumbai, and only two to Delhi. But he did, by the way, go easy on your tax bucks, flying Business Class on four occasions only. Don’t thank him yet, he might change his flying habit after reading this. In fact, the government could do well by accepting his flight fares as an average or MRP if you will for flying your montris to Mumbai and Delhi. Babu Azgaonkar could, as a matter of fact, offer his services as adviser on low cost flying. Case in point: his flight Mumbai-Kolhapur cost you a piddling (compared to what his compadres-in-the-air blew) just Rs 3,350 in April, a time when fares actually sizzle. Take a look.
2008 You pay they fly
11-13 April, Mumbai, Rs 13,585+702, total Rs 14,287; 23-25 April, Delhi, Rs 25,150+615, total Rs 25,765; 26-29 April, Mumbai-Kolhapur, Rs 3,350+702, total Rs 4,052; 26-28 June, Mumbai, Rs 7,600+780; total Rs 8,380; 02-03 August, Mumbai, Rs 16,609+442, total Rs 17,051; 19-22 September, Mumbai, Rs 7,555+962, total Rs 8,517; 11-14 October, Mumbai, Rs 17,385+962, total Rs 18,347; 23-24 October, Mumbai, Rs 8,320+520, total Rs 8,840; 17-19 November, Mumbai, Rs 7,895+72, total Rs 8,597.
2009
06-10 January, Delhi-Mumbai, Rs 14,953, 04-06 April, Mumbai, Rs 19,819+702, Rs 20,521; 06-08 June, Mumbai, Rs 7,258+780, total Rs 8,038; 01-03 July, Mumbai, Rs 4,708+702, total Rs 5,410; 04-11 November, Hyderabad-Tirupati-Hyderabad, Rs 13,458+1,101, total Rs 14,468. Strangely, when Vishwajeet Rane also flew to pray at the Lord Venkateshwara Temple in July 2008 his Economy Class airfare cost Rs 43,439. That’s why I say take his as the basis for future reference.
2010
13-15 January, Mumbai, Rs 1,058+702, total Rs 10,760.
Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Minister for Water Resources & Forests.
He seems to be a rarity among our council of ministers, barely zipping here and there unlike the others who sprout wings soon after induction into the cabinet.
2008
30 June-03 July 2008, Mumbai, Rs 13,078+962, total Rs 14,040.
2009
06-08 January Delhi, total Rs 11,850; 06-07 July, Delhi, Rs 13,896+520, total Rs 14,416.
The Flying Club Cost so far:
Vishwajeet Rane Rs 17,56,397
Churchill Alemao Rs 14,28,633
Digambar Kamat Rs 13,26,144
Joaquim Alemao Rs 12,34,442
Mickky Pacheco Rs 11,98,946
Babush Monseratte Rs 6,48,115
Babu Azgaonkar Rs 1,87,986
Dayanand Narvekar Rs 1,36,275
Ravi Naik Rs 4,08,749
Filipe Rodrigues Rs 40,306
Grand Total: Rs 83,65,993
Whose pleasure?
A lot has been said about the crap (literally) dumped by the offshore Casinos and pleasure vessels, more so after the pollution control board woke up from hibernation, blinked, poked its still-drowsy head into the squalid waters of the Mandovi, and surfaced quickly pronto as if it had sighted the Loch Ness monster. Only this was not the north of Scotland. It was not even our own little Nessie (as the Scots affectionately call the LN). It was like the crap hit the ceiling as the saying goes. Everyone was running helter-skelter, one daily (not Herald) even turning it into a circus. Whatever happened to action taken? If there was action to be taken, that is. Anyway, here’s an itsy bitsy bit (but which ought to raise a stink no less) of information, no one bothered to dig up then. My point being for all the crap and garbage the poor Mandovi gets, see what your government gives the rich Casino and pleasure vessel owners in return? Talk of inverse proportional benefits to the rich!
The Captain of Ports Department has four jetties in Panjim. The Malim jetty which the Mandovi Fisherman Marketing Co-Op Society has virtually commandeered and where someone, I am not sure who, even collects an entry fee from shoppers brave or foolish enough to buy the rather expensive fish sold there. The other three jetties are allegedly used on a temporary basis for berthing mainly the pleasure boats on what is called “touch and go basis”. Quaint. Only your government could think of such a catchy turn of phrase. These are the Patto jetty where the Goa Tourism Development Corporation’s, Priya Darshani River Cruises, Parsadise Cruises, Aqua World and Savio Messias are allowed to anchor or moor their vessels, leave out the ‘touch and go bit’ –it just doesn’t work like that. Now, all this information I garnered from the department itself. There is the Captain of Ports jetty, the eastern part of which is like or was like a permanent home for Leela Ventures from as far back as December 12, 2007. The fourth and last is the jetty on the western side of the Captain of Ports building leased to Goa Coastal Resorts and Recreation from October 24, 2008. All this for a song – an itsy bitsy Rs 4.30 lakh per annum. The reasons why these prized assets are not publicly auctioned but are furtively granted at the rulers’ sanctorum at Porvorim where pockets are touched and the bidder departs pleased as punch, are not known. All I can offer is that a helluva clever pickpocket, operating within those hallowed portals, made good use of the ancient Port Rules of 1983 and between toucher and touched got the compliant Captain of Ports to oblige. How touching! Thanksgiving to the Lord.
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
I said it before and I say it again. Tirupati is like a magnet for many of our montris and our chief montri. He was there on June 23. It’s not a coincidence that Kamath was there days after Babush merged his UGDP into the Congress giving the Grand Old Party 19 MLAs. That’s not all. Kamath is secure now that he has co-opted the “CEO” of the Group of Seven. No wonder he was in Tirumala to give thanks.
Mumbai, here I come
Manohar ‘Babu’ Azgaonkar, Minister for Panchayat Raj & RDA
The flight plans of our montris tend to sometimes reveal a little bit about them, like for instance, visiting Mumbai is like an adrenalin rush for many. It varies too. Nilkanth Halarnkar got his rush recently promising everything he wasn’t, for the love of God, ever going to keep but had to say because they think you and I are dimwitted. Other montris get their rush flying Business Class. It’s free in any case. Babu Azgaonkar gets his, flying to Mumbai. Of his fifteen flights made between April 2008-January 2010, ten were made to Mumbai, and only two to Delhi. But he did, by the way, go easy on your tax bucks, flying Business Class on four occasions only. Don’t thank him yet, he might change his flying habit after reading this. In fact, the government could do well by accepting his flight fares as an average or MRP if you will for flying your montris to Mumbai and Delhi. Babu Azgaonkar could, as a matter of fact, offer his services as adviser on low cost flying. Case in point: his flight Mumbai-Kolhapur cost you a piddling (compared to what his compadres-in-the-air blew) just Rs 3,350 in April, a time when fares actually sizzle. Take a look.
2008 You pay they fly
11-13 April, Mumbai, Rs 13,585+702, total Rs 14,287; 23-25 April, Delhi, Rs 25,150+615, total Rs 25,765; 26-29 April, Mumbai-Kolhapur, Rs 3,350+702, total Rs 4,052; 26-28 June, Mumbai, Rs 7,600+780; total Rs 8,380; 02-03 August, Mumbai, Rs 16,609+442, total Rs 17,051; 19-22 September, Mumbai, Rs 7,555+962, total Rs 8,517; 11-14 October, Mumbai, Rs 17,385+962, total Rs 18,347; 23-24 October, Mumbai, Rs 8,320+520, total Rs 8,840; 17-19 November, Mumbai, Rs 7,895+72, total Rs 8,597.
2009
06-10 January, Delhi-Mumbai, Rs 14,953, 04-06 April, Mumbai, Rs 19,819+702, Rs 20,521; 06-08 June, Mumbai, Rs 7,258+780, total Rs 8,038; 01-03 July, Mumbai, Rs 4,708+702, total Rs 5,410; 04-11 November, Hyderabad-Tirupati-Hyderabad, Rs 13,458+1,101, total Rs 14,468. Strangely, when Vishwajeet Rane also flew to pray at the Lord Venkateshwara Temple in July 2008 his Economy Class airfare cost Rs 43,439. That’s why I say take his as the basis for future reference.
2010
13-15 January, Mumbai, Rs 1,058+702, total Rs 10,760.
Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Minister for Water Resources & Forests.
He seems to be a rarity among our council of ministers, barely zipping here and there unlike the others who sprout wings soon after induction into the cabinet.
2008
30 June-03 July 2008, Mumbai, Rs 13,078+962, total Rs 14,040.
2009
06-08 January Delhi, total Rs 11,850; 06-07 July, Delhi, Rs 13,896+520, total Rs 14,416.
The Flying Club Cost so far:
Vishwajeet Rane Rs 17,56,397
Churchill Alemao Rs 14,28,633
Digambar Kamat Rs 13,26,144
Joaquim Alemao Rs 12,34,442
Mickky Pacheco Rs 11,98,946
Babush Monseratte Rs 6,48,115
Babu Azgaonkar Rs 1,87,986
Dayanand Narvekar Rs 1,36,275
Ravi Naik Rs 4,08,749
Filipe Rodrigues Rs 40,306
Grand Total: Rs 83,65,993
Whose pleasure?
A lot has been said about the crap (literally) dumped by the offshore Casinos and pleasure vessels, more so after the pollution control board woke up from hibernation, blinked, poked its still-drowsy head into the squalid waters of the Mandovi, and surfaced quickly pronto as if it had sighted the Loch Ness monster. Only this was not the north of Scotland. It was not even our own little Nessie (as the Scots affectionately call the LN). It was like the crap hit the ceiling as the saying goes. Everyone was running helter-skelter, one daily (not Herald) even turning it into a circus. Whatever happened to action taken? If there was action to be taken, that is. Anyway, here’s an itsy bitsy bit (but which ought to raise a stink no less) of information, no one bothered to dig up then. My point being for all the crap and garbage the poor Mandovi gets, see what your government gives the rich Casino and pleasure vessel owners in return? Talk of inverse proportional benefits to the rich!
The Captain of Ports Department has four jetties in Panjim. The Malim jetty which the Mandovi Fisherman Marketing Co-Op Society has virtually commandeered and where someone, I am not sure who, even collects an entry fee from shoppers brave or foolish enough to buy the rather expensive fish sold there. The other three jetties are allegedly used on a temporary basis for berthing mainly the pleasure boats on what is called “touch and go basis”. Quaint. Only your government could think of such a catchy turn of phrase. These are the Patto jetty where the Goa Tourism Development Corporation’s, Priya Darshani River Cruises, Parsadise Cruises, Aqua World and Savio Messias are allowed to anchor or moor their vessels, leave out the ‘touch and go bit’ –it just doesn’t work like that. Now, all this information I garnered from the department itself. There is the Captain of Ports jetty, the eastern part of which is like or was like a permanent home for Leela Ventures from as far back as December 12, 2007. The fourth and last is the jetty on the western side of the Captain of Ports building leased to Goa Coastal Resorts and Recreation from October 24, 2008. All this for a song – an itsy bitsy Rs 4.30 lakh per annum. The reasons why these prized assets are not publicly auctioned but are furtively granted at the rulers’ sanctorum at Porvorim where pockets are touched and the bidder departs pleased as punch, are not known. All I can offer is that a helluva clever pickpocket, operating within those hallowed portals, made good use of the ancient Port Rules of 1983 and between toucher and touched got the compliant Captain of Ports to oblige. How touching! Thanksgiving to the Lord.
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com
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