Every Goan family to receive 10 lakh rupees every year! Based on Sesa’s recent profits, few mining families in Goa earn 20000 crore rupees. There are 2 lakh families in Goa. If mining profit is distributed to all Goans, every Goan family will receive 10 lakh rupees every year.
It is revealing that what social services the mine owners are doing and getting big report in news papers is eye wash. It is like 100 rupees for a common man. Seby This is in response to - On 22nd July, Rajendra Kakodkar wrote: Roshni Rego died because Digu and his team of 50000 strong government employees could not take corrective action to prevent flooding of road-under-bridge, which gets flooded every monsoon. When small infrastructure needs of thousands of students cannot be satisfied, what moral authority/right does Digu have to even talk of Sea-Links, 4-Lanes and 6-Lanes? Government in this year’s budget has provided Rs 1200 crore as salaries, pensions and perks to government servents. Considering that there are 2 lakh households in Goa, each family bears a cost of Rs 60,000/- a year for services government gives us. Do we get services from them commensurate with what we bear? Has not the time come for citizens to rise and dictate what Digu must do and what Digu must get done from ministers, bureaucrats and babus? Last time it was Goa Bachao Abhiyan that shook the foundations of the goons. But this time around it is going to be different. Too much Mining money is floating around. The windfall comes without commensurate pain or sweat and therefore flows liberally to buy politicians, media, editors, reporters, pseudo-activists/NGOs, lawyers etc. Incidentally, yesterday Sesa declared Rs 1300 crore net profits for April-June 2010 quarter. Since there is negligible export in June, it is effectively 2-month profit. Extrapolate and you will arrive at Rs 6000 crore as profits for full year on 9-month operation basis. Sesa is one-third of the legal Goan mining sector. This gives Rs 18,000 crore as profits of legal mining sector. Illegal mining could be Rs 2000 crore more. Compare this with Goa’s budgeted revenue, which is mere Rs 2700 crore for this year. Rs 500 crore required for bypasses is mere 10 days profit. Why can’t Digu (mines minister for 11 years continuosly) force bypasses on miners? Mineral Foundation is hogging media space claiming CSR expenditure of Rs 20 crore - a profit they earn in mere SIX HOURS! * * * IS YOURS one of the stories of Goans on board the S.S. Dwarka, or at the Strait of Hormuz, Basra or Bahrain, Dubai, Swindon, Mombasa, Poona or Rangoon? Selma Carvalho's new book *Into the Diaspora Wilderness* docks at many other ports. Get your copy from Broadways, Panjim [9822488564] Rs 295. P&p extra. http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/
