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Sign the Petition requesting The Honble Minister of State for Environment
and Forests (I/C) to maintain the moratorium on issuing further
environmental clearances for mining activities in Goa
http://goanvoice.org.uk/miningpetition.php
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Government stands exposed on Governance
By Nisser Dias
nisserdias at gmail.com
SMS to 9422437029
In the recently concluded budget assembly session, almost all the
ministers in the coalition government led by chief minister Digambar
Kamat stood completely exposed not only on the aspect of lack of
governance but also for sins of commission and omission.
I recall to mind, Opposition leader Manohar Parrikar’s words during an
informal chat with journalists after the swearing in ceremony of the
chief minister. He had said that he would not allow Digambar Kamat to
sleep peacefully as long as he holds the reigns of the government and in
that regard Parrikar seems to be keeping up to his promise.
On one hand the cabinet colleagues are gunning for the head of the CM
and on the other the Opposition is either exposing scam after scam or
flooring the government in the assembly for inefficiency of its ministers.
After almost three years (couple of months short) at the helm of affairs
of the state the chief minister was expected to have a grip over his
administration, but the recently concluded assembly session uncovered
bare fact wherein the government has been found wanting.
The opposition, especially Manohar Parrikar pointed how the state was
losing huge amounts of money due to the lopsided policies and
functioning of the government. He pointed out how the state treasury was
being denied crores of rupees through illegal mining and the government
inspite of knowing that illegal mining was rampant to the extent that
some ministers themselves were allegedly involved in such an activity
was turning a blind eye to it.
The second expose Parrikar spoke of during the session was the scam in
the excise department where again crores and crores of rupees were lost
due to the lackadaisical attitude of the government and despite of
demands by the opposition to request the CBI to investigate into the
matter, the chief minister did not show any willingness to do so. Infact
the opposition leader during the post assembly session briefing quipped
to the journalist that the CM himself might be involved in the scam. And
if the chief minister is clean why the hesitation, let those who have
been looting the state may as well rot in jail.
Be it the Environment ministry, PWD ministry, Mining, Excise, Transport,
Education, Power, Revenue ministries, the respective ministers were left
red faced in the barrage of questions that the Opposition posed and the
ministers had no answers. The performance of the ministers was much to
be desired.
Just as the students who have to answer different exams, so also the
ministers have to answer questions posed to them, the differences
between the students and ministers is that even after giving the
questionnaire to the ministers in advance they do not live up to the
expectation of the masses. And with the electronic media beaming the
proceeding live, each and every citizen can see for themselves the
performance of our ministers. I could have elaborated on their
performance, but the ministers enjoy the privilege of the house and I do
not, hence have to pull back my punch otherwise I would be hauled up for
breach.
And would it not be better to dwell on the aspect of the English
language being used by them. These are the same people who beat their
breast for their love of Konkani to the extent PWD Churchill Alemao was
instrumental in changing the medium of instruction from English to
Konkani, thereby putting parents to great inconvenience and expense, but
he does not miss an opportunity to reply in English, but one can
understand his English especially because after a brief stint in school
during Portuguese era, he got the opportunity to do long distance
studying, which for him meant keeping the book as far as possible from
him and then study, that is actual reason why musketeers become mosquitoes.
Then we have Tourism minister who tries to imitate Texan drawl and does
a bad job there too. Urban Development minister Joaquim Alemao repeats
more errs…. ands…. then the reply, so much so that not only the person
asking the question even the listener gets confused with the reply. Our
ministers are well versed with the mother tongue and instead of
“Katorfying” English would well do to speak in Konkani.
Coming back to the discussion in the assembly sessions, leader of
Opposition has time and again pointed out that the ministers give
irrelevant replies to queries. I can confidently say that Opposition
leader Manohar Parrikar is the only legislator who burns his midnight
lamp to study the issues and corner the government and its ill informed
ministers. The opposition seems to be serious in being an opposition in
the true sense, of course most of time it is the leader of Opposition
who steals the show as he is always the person to have the last say.
By that, I do not mean or endorse that we should have Manohar Parrikar
led BJP government in the state. We have experienced his administration
earlier, though it was much better then this government but communal
elements had a big say in his government. The elements in the Congress
government might be materialistic in the sense that they want to fill
their coffers, whereas in the BJP though the materialistic factor though
not totally absent, the communal card they adopt, corrupts our society
much more.
And at this juncture, it is dangerous to allow BJP to come to power,
especially because their house is in a complete mess, but even then just
this week the party top echelons have raised their voice against
reservations for the Muslims and Christians claiming that this country
belongs only to Hindus. This is not acceptable at all because Muslims
and Christians have also sacrificed their lives for its freedom and have
equal rights in this country, which is enshrined in the Constitution of
India. (ENDS)
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First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - April 1, 2010
