Reference to the Navhind times news article on "SEZ most suitable form of
Industrial development for Goa, says GCCI Chief", this is to request the
GCCI Chief do not make statements based on your wild imagination and the way
you want to present to your audience at your fancy, we want strong
statistics to support your imaginations.
we goans are not laid back as you claimed in the interview,
Goans contribute with GDP per capita one and a half times of the country as
a whole and you too claimed yourself in your sep 1' 07 chamber centenary
speech at Cidade de Goa "that goa can pride as one of the best states in the
country in different parameters and can boast of the best socioeconomic
indicators in the country" how do you now say that "executives from outside
arriving in goa are needed to wake goans from their laid-back attitude" if
this is the case do you mean whatever we goans have achieved is by these so
called outsider goans or by being trained by these outsiders?
I agree every man wants to be back in their motherland and we
goans are not different but out of every 10 goans in IT Industry (out of
goa), I spoke to, 7 have acknowledged that if IT industries do come to Goa,
its identity will be lost within a span of 5 years and all of us (IT
professional) believe that it's ok if we sacrifice by working out of the
state and retire peacefully to the same old goa rather than see our self
alienated and out state in shambles and chaos.
For your information Major IT industries are not run by few
software engineers, they need lot of infrastructure in terms of Real Estate,
telecommunications and transit facilities besides water and power, and for
all these infrastructure there is a need for Skilled, highly skilled and
blue collared laborers, now the problem comes when it comes to providing
manpower to blue collar jobs since very few goans will opt to work for these
jobs that pay as little as a few thousands and who will take these jobs? it
will be the influx of laborers into goa from neighboring states then where
will you house these laborers in the backyard of the GCCI member's houses?
The numbers of engineers produced in goa are not enough for the Major IT
industries that need software professionals in thousands.
If GCCI wants to promote small IT companies in the state then it
is not required that goans provide SEZ's with vast tracts of our land to
these small IT industries, these can be done in the existing industrial
estates infrastructure itself.
If GCCI is really concerned about the low salary structure in
the state and serious about raising the salary in goa then they should
request the council of ministers and the industry minister in particular to
enact an ordinance to raise the minimum salary in the existing hotels and
other industrial establishments in the state, but no this won't be done
because neither the GCCI members nor the ministers will receive
kickbacks/baksheesh from the industrialist. If companies can pay high salary
outside Goa (these are not setup within SEZ's), then why can't existing
industries in goa afford to pay high salaries.
If the GCCI is concerned about the industrial growth in the
state then promote the traditional occupations of the state this can be
agriculture, fisheries and tourism besides other peripheral small IT
industries and improve the facilities provided to the visiting tourists and
the farmers instead of grabbing land from them. this could be a win win
situation for all because the people who want to stay back in goa can
continue with the traditional occupations and the highly skilled goans can
continue with the jobs across the globe as they are currently doing with no
grudge.
Regarding existences of checks for the Industrial Zones or SEZ's
there also exists many loopholes that vested interests will exploit to ruin
our state, just a small example is the one in SEZ Principal rules 5 sub rule
2 clause "D" that says "If a Developer subsequent to approval or
notification of a Special Economic Zone acquires more contiguous and vacant
land which makes the total area available, including the area already
notified as Special Economic Zone, more than the minimum area required for
another class of SEZ, the Board may consider such cases on a case to case
basis for allowing conversion to another class of Special Economic Zone by
subsuming such already approved or notified Special Economic Zone."
In this clause the loophole is "the Board may consider such cases
on a case to case basis for allowing conversion to another class of SEZ".
In short, Mr President of the GCCI, do not misguide the goans with distorted
and short sighted opinions you have about SEZ's which will spell disaster in
the years to come for every goan and the future generations including the
GCCI Goan members if any.
Thanks and Regards,
Peldin Fernandes.
