By Nisser Dias 21st Jan 2010 Insatiable Goan Politicians. Last week saw yet another failed coup against the chief minister Digambar Kamat and the players happened to the same bunch of politicians whose greed for ill-gotten and easy wealth is completely insatiable. And this is true because the incumbent chief minister of Goa has given his cabinet members and others too, a free hand to loot and plunder the state, its resources and the exchequer, only to save his chair. In my opinion the chief minister has sold his soul for the sake of his position, which reminds me of an adage, “Success without honour is like an unseasoned dish, it will satisfy your hunger but it will not taste nice.” But then our ministers along with their coterie of MLAs, are not satisfied and will not be satisfied until and unless they get their lion’s share of the loot from each and every project and schemes their ministries float either to improve the quality of life or build infrastructure for the development of the state. And the chief honcho Digambar Kamat’s only aim is to better the record as the chief minister of the state by way of years when compared to that of Manohar Parrikar. However the differences between them is Parrikar had administrative abilities and the ministers either feared him or he controlled them well, but in the case of Kamat the administration is in shambles and his council of ministers care two hoots to him. Some of his cabinet ministers have publicly admitted that law and order has collapsed, that there is lack of administration and some have even gone a step ahead and said Manohar Parrikar was a better administrator and the chief minister has allowed such mockery of him by his ministerial colleagues pass, without even initiating disciplinary proceedings against them and thus the ministers have been embolden. But maybe the chief minister do not want to antagonize the ministers, maybe because, he must be remembering that Babush Monserrate had initiated the fall of Manohar Parrikar 2005. But then and now the situations are different. Congress is quite a strong at the Centre and has been on a winning spree in various states. Therefore the grand old party is in a position to dictate terms especially to unattached members like Babush Monserrate. Of course this time round the Centre did a little bit of arm twisting through the CBI by filing the chargesheet against him, his wife and other aides in the court, in the Panjim police station stoning case. The Centre will also use the Income Tax officer to keep Education minister in line. Infact Babush should not have been sworn as a minister in the first place by dropping Dayanand Narvekar for he had betrayed the Congress party at the eleventh hour before the assembly election, then he alongwith his supporters or rather henchmen stoned the Panjim police station. Besides this he was also a part of two failed coups against the chief minister and it is better to say less about his criminal past. Babush Monserrate might have initiated the process of reviving the gang of 7 to stage the coup but other six, specially the ministers are equally responsible for trying to destabilize the government. We have the Dhavlikar brothers, whose high security number plates sham got tangled in a controversy and the matter now lies with the High Court. Undoubtedly Transport is a lucrative portfolio and with all the RTO officers well trained in extorting money from vehicle owners, brings in a lot of moolah. And of course they must be thinking if both Alemaos and Ranes are enjoying power, why not them. Both these Dhavlikars were also part of the earlier two coups and later Sudin was sworn in by dropping Pandurang Madkaikar. Then let us take Health minister Vishwajit Rane, he must be feeling like a fish out of water with his portfolio, especially when he has enjoyed absolute power for 19 years during the tenure of his father as chief minister. Of course he has raked in lot of wealth in some shady land deals, but the Health portfolio is not very lucrative, but of course he gets around it with up-gradation of medical equipments, facilities and constructions of new hospital buildings and lots others which brings in lot of moolah, but after almost two and half years all our government hospitals and primary health centres are in shambles. Scanning cannot be done, inadequate medicines, insufficient beds, dirty linen, costing cutting in dietary provisions, overfull or malfunctioning mortuaries leading to rotting of corpses the list can go on. This indicates that our Health minister has been a failure upto now. Of course he will place the blame squarely on the finance ministry for his inefficiencies, but what holds him from bringing about an administrative changes in the functioning of government hospitals. Then we have NCP trio, of course Nilkanth Halarnkar is just a hangover for the other two. Revenue minister Jose Philip D’souza and Tourism minister Mickky Pacheco are the most vocal against the chief minister. The performance of both these ministers has been abysmal and Revenue minister gets grilled during every assembly session. But shameless that he is, continues the same way for the greed of loaves of bread. Mickky Pacheco is an embarrassment to the government, he has brought a bad name to the state all by himself, firstly for his brazen lifestyle which reflects in the controversial audio CD which rocked Goa recently and then for abusing hospitality extended to him by star hotels in Goa by creating a ruckus in casinos and then his lose mouth. Infact he has done much more harm then good for the Tourism in Goa. He boasts about marketing Goa abroad, though he invited tourists from some countries, citizens of only one nation responded, ironically tourists of this nation spells doom for tourism anywhere in the world and this he calls his achievement. At the moment citizens of this nationality are creating problems not only for tourist of other countries but also for hotels, tour and tourist taxi operators. Furthermore culture, traditions, manners, being articulate, and etiquette are surely not his forte, how can he ever make a good Tourism minister. Worse still he has the habit of shooting his mouth off without rhyme, reason and analysis. And his unholy coalesce with the Alemao brothers, is not for the betterment of Goa, but for their own convenience and welfare. PWD minister Churchill Alemao also attended the party of the gang of 7 and was cribbing about his sewerage project file costing Rs. 1000 crores lying with the finance department, a portfolio held by the chief minister. It amply proves that the failed coup was all about money and commissions. It is said that Churchill Alemao was asked to take over chief minister from current incumbent with the support of the G7 along with their coterie of MLAs. Initially he showed some inclination, however he then realized that disqualification sword is hanging over his head with the speaker, thus started singing like a canary that he would act as per the wishes of the High Command. Then we have the fence sitters like Calangute MLA Agnelo Fernandes who have been elected for three consecutive terms but have not found cabinet berth but this time round EDC chairmanship has been thrown to him, then St. Andre MLA Francis Silveira though elected twice did not find favour while formation of Council of Minister and was thus appointed as Parliamentary secretary with the cabinet status, however that too was snatched from him and then Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco and chairman of the white elephant Kadamba Transport Corporation. It was expected of him to turn around the corporation and make it financial viable, but it seems he has utterly failed. More so, Reginald being a Congressman, Babush Monserrate has him on a leash and will sway whichever way Education minister wants him to.
Conclusively until and unless we have a strong leader as chief minister, the bunch of people who have joined politics and elected by us will continue to fill their personal coffers by robbing Goans and bleeding Goa dry of its resources. Send your comments/reactions to [email protected] or SMS 9422437029) [email protected] for Goa & NRI related info... http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/GOAN-NRI/ For Goan Video Clips http://youtube.com/joeukgoa In Goa, Dial 1 0 8 For Hospital, Police, Fire etc The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/
