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


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