Compilation of brick-bats Digu got in last few days. Surely the intensity is increasing. Times of India reported on 19th Aug: Chief minister Digambar Kamat was put on the spot on Wednesday when veteran freedom fighter Shamrao Madkaikar advised him to stop constantly travelling to Delhi to safeguard his chair, but to instead concentrate on the development of Goa. Kamat was at Madkaikar’s residence on Wednesday evening to wish the freedom fighter on his 100th birthday. Taking a potshot at the present political scenario, the freedom fighter said that dacoits loot to get money to satisfy their hunger, but todays politicians are worse than dacoits. They keep looting the public even after their stomachs are full. Comments: Should not other freedom fighters stop attending functions attended by Digu and 39, who are worse than the dacoits?
Herald of 19th Aug exposed the bluff: Digambar Kamat stated in the assembly that the collection of taxes was best in comparison to the recent years. In reality it was otherwise. Goa – Economy in Figures – 2010, compiled by the Directorate of Planning & Statistics, show that the state has fallen short by Rs 102 crore in collection of the customs revenue (Rs 776 crore in 2008-09; Rs 674 crore in 2009-10). Central Excise revenue is down by Rs 202 crores (Rs 387 crore in 2008-09; Rs 185 crore in 2009-10). Sales tax is short by Rs 2 crore (Rs 1131 crore in 2008-09; Rs 1129 crore in 2009-10). Besides this, the State also failed to collect Rs 200 crore as green cess on mining transport, which was announced in the State Budget in 2008. Times of India reported on 18th Aug: Magsaysay award-winning social activist Arvind Kejriwal, has blown the lid off Digamber Kamat government in implementing RTI Act. The commission takes three months to hear appeals. Information commission blamed the CM for not providing courtrooms and infrastructure. In 2008, the pendency of cases rose from 58 to 112. Despite the orders to provide information in 62 cases, only 20 to 30 people finally got information. The pro-info rate in Goa of 58% cases was far lower than the national average of 68%. The commission shows reluctance to penalize erring officer and does not ensure compliance of its orders. Punjab, Bihar, Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka are far advanced in RTI than Goa. Times of India reported on 18th Aug: The Centre's decision to set up the mining commission comes at a time when the government is also considering a National Mining Regulatory Authority under the new Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act. The authority, which will have state level branches as well, is intended to monitor and check illegal mining in future. Comments: In Goa, illegal mining is rampant. So far CM, who is mines minister for 11 consecutive years, has been dodging and not taking action against illegal mining. He is also delaying Lok Ayukta in Goa. In Karnataka, Lok Ayukta recently nailed the omissions and commissions of Mines Ministry there. Times of India reported on 16th Aug: Governor S S Sidhu has called for a 'moral revolution' as a counter to the happenings in the society. He referred to drug trafficking, corruption, environmental degradation. Comments: The root cause of this are politicians, who are given free hand by the CM. TCP 16/16-A and 17/17-A amendments introduced by the CM are potential environmental bombs. Illegal mining is just overlooked. If the Congress High Command takes the advice seriously it will not be able to give tickets to most of the MLAs in the ensuing assembly elections. Probably, Rahul had called Madkaikar, Silvera and Gauns only to finalize this. Aires Rodrigues wrote in Herald on 15th June: Chief Minister Digambar Kamat may continue to live in his old flat in Margao even after becoming CM, but can he also enlighten the people of Goa on the astronomical growth of his assets and those of his family and business associates, first after he became a minister and then over the last three years as chief minister. Could this be the real reason why the government has kept the proposal for a Lokayukta to check corruption in cold storage? Rajan Narain wrote on 22nd May in Goan Observer: Historically, it has been Deputy Speaker Mauvin Godinho who has been protecting Winnie Coutinho for helping him in the case against him for illegally granting power subsidies worth Rs.16 crore to steel rolling mills. Digamber Kamat continued to listen to Mauvin Godinho on sparing Winnie Countinho till Godinho started targeting the Chief Minister. It will be recalled that following the Supreme Court judgment which indicted him, Mauvin Godinho alleged that when Digamber Kamat was the power minister in the Manohar Parrikar regime, he had extended a power subsidy of Rs.15 crore to Mormugao Steel in violation of the rules. It was because Godinho started targeting Digamber Kamat that Winnie was sacked. The Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues have literally been feasting at the expense of the tax payers and the aam admi. Chief Minister Digamber Kamat alone spent over one crore rupees on wining and dining not only visiting VIPs and VVIPs but also his own cabinet colleagues, MLAs belonging to the ruling party and government servants. Herald reported on 4th August: Dayanand Narvekar said that it was industry and not mining that was the backbone of Goa. Mining never fetched desired revenue in the absence of monitoring and sound legislations. It was only because the Central govt changed royalty to ad valorem, Goa got some revenue. If CM enforces 31 conditions of the Central Environment Ministry, not a single mine would be legal. The penalties from these could give Goa Rs 1,000 crore per annum. Narvekar said the State needs to draft strong legislations to tighten control over haphazard mining, but everyone here is at the mercy of the mine owners. Conveniently everything is left to Central Empowered Committee (CEC). All congress MLAs are afraid of this committee even more than the Portuguese Salazar. Narvekar said Goa had a small area of 3,702 sq km, but, encroachment on forest land, largely for mining, is more compared to Bihar. Before we call Bihar a jungle raj, we must look in our own backyard. Around 5,000 ha of forest is destroyed. Catchment area for Mhadei is devastated by mining. Why don’t you stand up to this, he questioned all MLAs. He said 62 mines are working without air and water clearances and asked CM to serve notices to these mines and close them. Comments: For CM silence is Gold, Platinum and diamonds. On 5th Aug Dr.Nandkumar Kamat wrote on Goanet: Goa's total area is 370300 hactairs (ha). CM admitted in the assembly that RP-2021 excludes 297400 ha of ecosensitive areas. This leaves just 72900 ha for land use planning. An excellent example of how civil society in Goa wastes energy. Now it would be difficult to jump from the RP-2021 ship! Be sure that by next assembly election people of Goa would be stripped of all their powers except casting the ballots! Mickky Pacheco moved a notice for breach of privilege against chief minister Digambar Kamat. The notice refers to a statement by the chief minister that he had not spoken to Sharad Pawar or Praful Patel regarding removing Pacheco from the cabinet. Pacheco alleged that the chief minister had misled Pawar alleging "clinching evidence" against Mickey in the Nadia case. Pacheco attached newspaper copies which had reported Kamat as saying that he had spoken to Pawar. Reply to LAQ: In the last five years, the government has permitted the felling of 119628 trees. Of these, 46,779 trees were allowed to be cut for the purpose of mining. Girish Karnad: Goa government under Digamber Kamat is unable to safeguard freedom of expression of artists. He resigned prestigious post to spell Goa vision. Comments: Should not other artist emulate Karnad and refuse to attend programmes attended by Digu? The efforts of the vision committee will be waste. Charles Correia Regional Plan is in limbo for 3 years. Digu only dangles carrots; does not implement anything. His only aim is to keep people busy in everything else so that they do not go deeper into mining, where he can allow nonsense as stated by Congress MLA Narvekar. He wants to keep western Goans bogged down to DLFs, Rahejas, Abu-bakars, Vanxim Sand, River-Princess, 17/17-A, National Highway widening, Garbage, art-festivals, film-festivals etc. so that they have no time to think of mining menace in eastern Goa. Don’t need Goan voters: Since long the Moti-dongor vote bank has been talked about. Three months ago Digu went one step ahead to tell village groups that he does not need votes from Goans. Ladies keep off Politics: When Sonia was trying hard in the Parliament to get womens reservation bill approved, Digu was advising ladies to keep off the polical arena. Was he specifically targeting Valanka? Or was it meant for all?
