A Golden Opportunity

All that glitters is not gold

It’s what Indian politicians do, acquire land and donate it to rich industrialists who never look a gift horse in the mouth, but the extent to which Goan politicians will go to boggles the mind in land-scarce Goa. This attempt to acquire land near Margao should concern even the worst cynic who thinks this is a good thing that’s happening. In this case, land is being acquired for Daivadnya Samaj, a society of goldsmiths which during the period when the landowners were legally trying (actual date: August 21, 2007) to prevent the acquisition actually failed to renew its registration which had lapsed. Strange but true.
What is even more odd is the fact that a certain Daivadnya Samaj member owns 6,000 sq. mt of land, a distance of about 500 mt. from the land that is sought to be acquired. The beneficiaries are just 15 members of the society but the golden egg for Chief Minister Digambar Kamat behind this bizarre land acquisition is perhaps the vote bank of the goldsmiths who are mostly supporters of the BJP. According to Pundalik Virdikar, a journalist and one of the two victims of yet another land acquisition scam, Daivadnya Samaj (registration no. 97/GOA097 dated 29.7.97) applied to the Collector, South Goa on August 24, 2006 for the 5,347 sq. mt of land at Calcondem, Navelim, Margao for a “community welfare project”. The figures 15 and 5,347 matched together ought to convince you what this community welfare project will end up becoming!

Strange, odd, bizarre

After considering every imaginable dimension and stretching himself to the limit, the Deputy Collector awarded the victims a compensation of, hold on tight to your armrests, Rs 45,567. Ok, if you are horizontal on the floor and still clutching your Herald in shock, the figure even now should read Rs 45,567 which technically has to be shared with the Margao Communidade. Now, Digambar Kamat I wrote in this column recently spent Rs 37,399 (April 2008-March 2009) and Rs 67,363 (April 2007 and March 2008) on refreshments to entertain his visitors at the Secretariat. Turn cold on the thought that your montris think this low of your inherited land and what could be all the financial security you have. Just to make your Sunday even more pleasantly miserable, do be informed that of the compensation award of Rs 45,567, Rs 11,411 was gratuitously awarded as additional compensation under two different sections of the acquisition act! I have since been trying to imagine the twisted, perverse, wicked sense of humour of those men who wrote that very mean act, and, why it hasn’t been changed since.

Earlier you read of two facts, one called ‘strange’, the other called ‘odd’. This is bizarre. Because, earlier the same land was being acquired for a government village school playground, but was subsequently stopped and the intent advertised in a newspaper on April 16, 2007, which means the two acquisition processes (at least) actually overlapped each other. Remember Daivadnya Samaj applied for the land on August 24, 2006.

If there’s money, there’s honey

Something’s fishy in the oft disturbed waters of Cortalim. There was the Bharti Shipyard minor tsunami earlier if you recall which the villagers, bless their hardened souls, doused after much betrayal from their MLA and the Chicalim sarpanch Raul D’Costa who was clearly behind Bharti’s plan to build a second shipyard. There is something sinister going on now if you consider that the local MLA Mauvin Godinho is suddenly showing interest in building a 10 mt wide road (where no road is needed) to the coast. When asked why so wide, he reportedly said that the road had to be wide enough to accommodate a drainage system. Now, in a state where building Ravindra Bharatis (one currently being built in Baina, Vasco, another on the Verna-Dabolim airport road of all places) and hosting the International Film Festival of India for which (Rs 1,26,90,578) was spent only on hotel accommodation) at taxpayer’s cost is legitimate if you stretch a point, a lonely road to nowhere sounds odd. Nah, can’t be, there’s no money to be made here.
But wait, there’s got to be a raison d’ etre. It turns out there is. It appears an industrialist from Mormugao taluka with cash to spare for the good life and whose heart was never really in the family business, wants to set up a marina there. Unlike the other marina rumours, this one is for real, which is why some panchas belonging to the Chicalim Village Panchayat (VP) are now (bee)sy rallying behind the Queen Bee to build that beehive (apologies to Mayawati, the daulat-ki-beti who got stung by the money mala not the bees hovering overhead), oops sorry, road. As one bee in the VP said to another, “See honey, there’s always money where the honey is.”


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