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www.oherald.com dated January 14, 2003 TUESDAY TUNES JAN 13 Parrikar, the jinx shooter? CHIEF MINISTER MANOHAR Parrikar, it appears, has not forgotten what he had done to his predecessor Francisco Sardinha during his (Sardinha's) foreign jaunt to Australia. Thus, Parrikar seems to haveleft no stone unturned to dodge any attempt to topple him during his tour to the United States from January 16 to 24. At least that is what we understand from his taking of the legislators to the hill station, Amboli. We understand that nearly 60 per cent of the ruling dispensation was present at Amboli. The shrewd chief minister took the group to Amboli on a picnic, presumably to get them swear loyalty to him and to indoctrinate them on the virtue of Parrikar and BJP continuing in power. He has also made sure that during his foreign jaunt, the governor does not stay in Goa, thereby frustrating any coup attempt by the Opposition or his own "friends". Mickky and his exploits OVER TO OUR honorable tourism minister, Mickky Pacheco, who is being referred as the 'Sonia Gandhi of Goa'. And the reason thereof - his accent of Konkani resembles the eloquent style of Gandhi speaking in Hindi. The otherwise outspoken man will find himself ill at ease whenever he has to address a gathering in his mother tongue and abruptly halts his speech with Hanv chodd kain ulloinam. If living in the United States has made him change the style of his Konkani, it has even made his style of English too difficult for the ordinary English speaking man to understand. Now take this for an example. Ask Mickky for his bio-data and he will flush out a sheet of paper containing all the details of his career...but minus his educational qualifications. We all know that he is a tailor by profession, but is there any mention of this profession in his 'bio-data'? Yes, but in style - 'Expert in Couture industry.' For those of you who want to know the meaning of 'Couture'. Don't bother to open the dictionary. It pertains to tailoring. But why is he so ashamed to call himself a tailor. Probably Mickky has the answer. Ranes 'greet' you SEASONS GREETINGS AND a happy new year. These greetings come to you from the three Ranes. Father, son and wife and through separate greeting cards. Courtesy, and probably at the cost of 'Bal Bhavan'. It is understandable that the husband and wife hold positions at the government level to get the free quota of greeting cards. But what about Vishwajeet and what position does he occupy in the government to avail of free quota of greeting cards? If not, then who has paid for the same? And going by Vishwajeet's past track record, he is used to the living in "pukat" style and since old habits die-hard, one can bet that he has not paid for the same. Pray the judiciary does not come into the figure to spoil the New Year bash of the ambitious son. A late gift EACH YEAR, THE Electricity Department used to release tubelight fixtures to all 40 constituencies of the State for Ganesh Chatruti and Christmas. We learn that for this Christmas, the quota was released only on Christmas eve and with disparity. Constituencies represented by BJP MLAs got a minimum of 100 fixtures, whereas those represented by the opposition got a paltry 50, no matter how backward was the region in terms of poorly lit streets. "Development will be even and without any discrimination" were the words of Manohar Parrikar when he took over the reigns of the CMs "kodel". Hollow statements? Arlekar-Jacques, a perfect team GOA INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT Corporation has indeed come of age. The last two months have seen fast paced activities in the corporation unheard of in the past. For corporations, what you need is similarity of ideas of the chairman and the executive officer - the managing director and of course, the political backing of the government. This is exactly what is happening in this corporation. The chairman Rajendra Arlekar is determined to improve the industrial scenario, and he has a very young and dynamic officer Sandeep Jacques as the managing director (Jacques, in addition, also holds the charge of MD of Goa State Infrastructure Developmental Corporation). Jacques who enjoys the trust of the chief minister, has been able to bring in some degree of accountability and efficiency. The same officers who at one time were known for red-tapism even for registration and renewal of licences, now have come under scrutiny. One reason why new units had not been setting up shop in Goa was that entrepreneurs used to hardly receive a good reception from the authorities. Now the top bosses go out of their way to attract industries to Goa. "Dr Reddy's" proposal to set up a unit at Verna of Rs 35 crore was cleared in record time recently. The Goa Chamber has also appreciated the work being done by Jacques. "This is the kind of efficiency that is required if Goa needs to attract industries to Goa," was what a senior member of Goa Chamber had to say. Indeed, good officers can make a big difference. 'Tips' to curb crimes SO NOW YOU know why the "performance" of the Goa police has improved over the last one year? The objective of the law enforcing authority has been to ensure that minimal cases are registered. Modus operandi: discourage the victim from filing a complaint. Encourage the citizen to file a complaint if he has either caught the accused red-handed or knows who the culprit is! In other words, you have to first some how nab the thief (even if he is a dacoit) or at least recover the stolen property (before the culprit flees from the scene) if you intend to go to the police station with a complaint. This is the impression everyone got from the attitude of Panjim police station in a case which was an eye opener for all citizens. It seems the PSIs are instructed (who else than by the higher ups) to convincingly dissuade the victims from filing complaints. No wonder the government has been boasting of having achieved higher recovery rates at the police stations. Fortunately, the police station does not have many who can do a good PR job. Otherwise, the complaints might have still been less! Contributed by Rajan Narayan and Frederick Rebello
