Files crawl, but babus jet


In a government where files are known to crawl at snail’s pace and some even go AWOL, its ministers and officers however prefer to fly at jet speed. These are more of their flying exploits between 2007-08 and 2008-09, this time (as I said earlier) giving the entire expenditure incurred on the junkets.

Sanjit Rodrigues, Director (Industries) – Thailand, China – 1,11,333; Dr Rajnanda Dessai, Director (Health Services) – Zurich, Dusseldorf – Rs 1,23,705, Dubai – Rs 81,020, Oxford, UK – expense not known as it was paid for by the Nova Nordisk Foundation; Joaquim Alemao, Chairman, GSUDA & Daulat Hawaldar, Member Secretary, GSUDA – Frankfurt, Lyon, Paris, La Rochelle – Rs 16,71,846. Never heard of La Rochelle. Me too, so I Googled. It’s on France's west coast between Nante and Bordeaux and is an interesting tourist destination on the sea. La Rochelle has an interesting old harbour fortified in the middle ages and a wonderful medieval core city. The cuisine of La Rochelle is memorable for its seafood. Aahh, Seafood eh! They spent eight days on this whirlwind tour and perhaps achieved nothing. This is possibly why? The distance between Paris and La Rochele is 470 km and it takes an hour to fly. The flying time between Paris and Lyon is 29 minutes. There’s the flight from Frankfurt to Paris to factor in as well, plus the flight from Dabolim to Bombay, then the distance of 6,575 km or eight hours of flying time from Bombay to Frankfurt. If only there was a way to find out how much time was spent working, if they did work, that is. But, if you consider they spent 192 hours (eight days) that works out to a blistering rate of Rs 8,702 an hour.

Then there was R S Yadav, Sr. SP (Crime & Intelligence) who flew to Vicenza in Italy on a 24-day official tour paid for by the Centre for Excellence for stability Police Unit, Vicenza, so his expense is not known.

Fruitful Journeys

Sagun Wadkar, member, board of directors, Goa State Horticulture Corporation (GSHC), Ashok Joshi, also a board director and SSP Tendulkar, Director (Agriculture) each spent Rs 3,49,571 on a 12-day junket to the Phillipines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Total cost: Rs 10,48,713. While Frieda Barreto, the Dy Director (Agriculture) and Larry Barreto, Asst Director (Agriculture) went to Singapore. Total cost: Rs 2,85,000.

Now horticulture is a composite of two words, horti meaning grass, and culture. The only thing that makes sense here is that the idea the grass is greener across oceans must have germinated within GSHC, so it too went along with the ‘culture’ of flying and decided to develop its own strain of ‘wings’. Amen to that.

What is it about Dubai?

Dr Ida de Noronha de Ataide, Professor, Dental College – Dubai – Rs 80,711; Manohar Azgaonkar, Vice-Chairman Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) –Dubai & Doha – Rs 2,27,500; JP Singh, Chief Secretary – Dubai & Doha – Rs 1,47,900, Morad Ahmad, Chief Town Planner – Dubai & Doha – 1,83,070; JJ Rego, Chief Engineer, PWD –Dubai & Doha – Rs 1,83,070; VM Prabhu Desai, Executive Director, SAG – Dubai & Doha – Rs 2,19,801.
Prabhudessai, the blue-eyed boy of all sports ministers is a popular itinerant and even went to World Cup 2006 as he said to check out the stadia there so they could be replicated here. Yeah right! The cost of that trip that included a posse of four others was Rs 7,12,439.

And Down Under

JJS Rego, CE-11 – Australia & New Zealand – Rs 1,15,245; A. Parulakar, Superintendent Engineer – Australia & New Zealand – Rs 1,15,245; JPP de Souza, Superintendent –Australia & New Zealand – Rs 1,15,245.

Of Speed Money

The Jai Damodar Association’s Dattaram Nayak tells me that an officer of the Road Transport Department at Margao, MJ Walke has set the following ‘speed money’ rates for different categories. To renew the fitness certificate of a light motor vehicle, the official fee is Rs 300, while the speed money rate is Rs 600. To renew a fitness certificate of a medium motor vehicle it is Rs 300 and Rs 800 respectively. For a heavy goods vehicle it is Rs 500 and Rs 1,200. For water tankers – Rs 500 and Rs 2,500. Mini buses Rs 500 and Rs 2000. Big buses – Rs 500 and Rs 2,500. National permit trucks Rs 500 and Rs 2,500. To register new trucks and mini buses the official rate is Rs 600, while the speed money rate varies between Rs 5,000-10,000. I love the clarity in this man’s work. Thus, if the vehicle has no hand brake, there is a speed money surcharge of Rs 500. No emergency door for a bus attracts a surcharge of Rs 1,000. If a bus has no complaint box, the extra charge is a mere Rs 200. Ditto for a first aid box. See what I mean, no kit kit. There’s one irritant though. The touts and agents are mostly non-Goans and that means Goans are harassed because if you are a bhailo, you get the expressway treatment. So Goans are pissed off because it does hurt when in your homeland, you have to go through a ghatti. You want to know their names, yes. Wait till next week then.

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