The M V River Princess saga By Nisser Dias nisserdias at gmail.com SMS to 9422437029
For the last few weeks Goans especially those from the coastal belt of Candolim- Sinquerim, Calangute and Baga are keenly following the decade old mystery of attempts to remove the grounded M V River Princess from its shores. Though one can see the light at the end of decade old legal tangle, sometimes the lights seems to be only a mirage. Given the inflated ego of Anil Salgaocar, he does not seem to agree on any government decision but wants the government see and do things his way.
Of course this one individual has not only held successive governments but is still holding the environment and ecology to ransom, he is also throttling tourism in the area along with the livelihood of many with his stubborn and willful attitude. Even after ten long years his attitude has almost reached the levels of eccentricity so much so that against government’s demand of Rs. 10 crores as bank guarantee, Salgaocar offered Rs. one crore which tantamount to mockery.
The saga of grounded bulk carrier River Princess and successive governments’ inability to remove it for a decade clearly indicates the incompetence of our administration. One man withstood four governments headed firstly by Francisco Sardinha then Manohar Parrikar, Pratapsingh Rane and now Digambar Kamat. It is an accepted fact that during Manohar Parrikar tenure was a forward looking government as he had control over his administration, but when it came to this issue he too failed miserably.
The transhipper grounded on 6th June 2000 and St. Cruz MLA Victoria Fernandes was the Tourism minister. She hardly did any work of trying to refloat the vessel. Then came in first time MLA Mickky Pacheco and was sworn in as the Tourism minister in the Manohar Parrikar cabinet. During the very first week he visited Sinquerim beach with all the officials in tow. Later when journalists questioned about the removal of the vessel he boasted that he has directed it to be towed away within fifteen days. By such blabbering he exposed that he knew nothing about salvage operations nor had he taken briefings on the issue from his officials and that time itself it was a forgone story that Mickky Pacheco would not be effective.
Then came in Mathany Saldhana as a Tourism minister and everybody pinned hopes on him. He even declared that if he cannot remove the vessel he would resign as minister. To everybody’s bad luck his tenure was abruptly cut short by toppling the government. It is my firm belief that if the veteran activist was around for some time he would be true to his word.
Then came in veteran politicians Dr. Wilfred D’souza and through the arduous international tender process which took all of three years from 2003 to 2006 appointed Jaisu Shipping from Gujarat to refloat and tow the ore carrier seaward within 90 days against the bank guarantee of Rs. 5.5 crores. They worked till 2008 and nothing happened. Then came Mickky Pacheco again and now we have Nilkant Halarnkarn as Tourism minister.
Just like 2003 the High Court has now ordered the government to use all its powers to remove the vessel expeditiously and it quite obvious Salgaocar Mining Industries Private Ltd. (SMIPL) or rather its chairman Anil Salgaocar is playing spoil sport by refusing to attend meeting on the issue, by offering bank guarantee of Rs. one crore and I will not be surprised if he pulls some other tricks to vitiate the removal of the vessel.
From 2000 successive governments did not show any backbone to take on Anil Salgaocar head-on and use all its machinery to tackle the issue. At the time of grounding of the bulk carrier local company Madgavkar Salvage had come forward to re-float and tow the vessel away for Rs. one crore and subsequently submitted a bid to Rs. 110 crores to re-float but the government did not show any inclination of accepting their services. Ten years later after the vessel had deteriorated and has anchored its more then 10 meters deep in the seabed, SMIPL has the audacity to offer the government just Rs. one crore. And if government accepts this Salgaocar will not only have the last laugh but will also be laughing all the way to the bank as the scrap value itself will be much more. And that too when the heavy machinery has mysteriously disappeared from the bulk carrier.
If the successive governments had the will to challenge the arrogance of Anil Salgaocar it could have brought in Ordinances to counter persistent litigation. During Manohar Parrikar’s time Town and Country Planning ordinance was brought to bring hills, fields under settlement zone. That the ordinance never fructified because of strong opposition from Goans and NGOs is a different matter. In recent time Chief Minister Digambar Kamat introduced an Ordinance and saved structures of Cidade de Goa which the Supreme Court of India had ordered to be demolished.
These are just a couple of instances when the governments have moved fast for whatever reasons. If the successive governments had shown such enthusiasm M V River Princess would long be gone, but no Anil Salgaocar being one of the richest businessman in Goa who allegedly has the money to make and break not only chief ministers but also governments and this seems to be the reason that no chief minister from 2000 tried to step on his tail or antagonize him.
And the travesty is this same individual who used his resources to find loopholes in the law to keep his bulk carrier in the water of Sinquerim-Candolim is now lawmaker. What possible good will he do for the state when he thinks that not only Goa but the world should dance at his tunes. And just couple of days back he has made his intentions very clear by refusing to pay to keep Rs. ten crores as bank guarantee.
For me Anil Salgaocar would be better off in a Chinese jail. The three years that he has been elected as an MLA, he must have used his time to see that government does not move against him, but now he seems to have reached then end of the rope, it is only up to the courts to pull it and make him look like a puppet on a string because I’m sure present government is incapable of doing it. (ENDS)
=========================================================== First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - September 23, 2010
