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Happy New Year Twenty-Ten
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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.
*
Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars....@gmail.com) *
--
Lionel Messias,
Independent Journalist,
Worked for the best:
Goa Today, Gomantak Times, Herald, Mid-Day, The Pioneer,
Indian Express (Bangalore), Economic Times (Chennai, Hyderabad),
Newstime (Hyderabad), Gulf News (Hyderabad)
Read my blog:
http://freebirdingoa.blogspot.com/
Tel: 0832-2280935
