People living in glass houses should not throw stones at others
By Nisser Dias
nisserdias at gmail.com
SMS to 9422437029
As recently as last week newly appointed, inexperienced Congress party
Goa unit spokesperson and a greenhorn in politics Valanka Alemao tried
to make a show of grand standing by questioning BJP’s silence on alleged
corruption by their former party president Bangaru Laxman and ended up
exposing herself as an incompetent lawyer also.
Simply because one cannot comment when the case is sub-judice. If
Valanka does not know this much of law, I doubt whether she will be an
asset if at all elected to Goa Legislative Assembly. Without going into
the merits of the case Congress wound up the Commission set-up by the
NDA government to enquire into the allegation against Bangaru Laxman and
handed the matter to the CBI in 2004 and the chargesheet came to be
filed in 2006 during the regime of the Congress government. Could the
spokeperson tell us why the Congress government is not pursuing the
matter in earnest? It is simply because they want the law to take its
own course and do not want to be seen as witch hunting or influencing
the judiciary.
From the media conference held by the probable candidate for Benaulim
constituency it seems that she is testing the waters to face the press.
That the presspersons attending the briefing did a shabby job of it is a
different aspect. However it seems that they too were under influence of
her father. Otherwise why did they not question her about the tenets of
law, ‘innocent until proven guilty’
That apart, I would like to remind the immature spokesperson that she
should not throw stones at others while living in glass house. There
have been so many allegations of corruption against Valanka, her father
and uncle, both of who are ministers in the current government and her
answer to that is produce the proof.
Before going into allegations, I will first place facts against Valanka
Alemao, recently she was disqualified as a candidate for the post of
Youth Congress president and the reason being she used the chief
minister Digambar Kamat and her influential father Churchill Alemao to
canvas for her. This is also corruption as she is trying to lure youth
to vote for her either through inducement or intimidation. The Alemao
family tried to move heaven and hell to turn it around but nothing
changed, they even threatened to topple the government but failed. This
stigma that Valanka was disqualified in her first intra party election
will also stick to her like her shadow.
More recently PWD minister Churchill Alemao made a statement at a public
meeting in Benaulim that he is going to set-up a sewerage plant in the
constituency only if his daughter is elected. This is also inducement to
voters amounting to corruption.
Further there have been lot of times that PWD has taken up roads in
Benaulim constituency. Propaganda is made in the locality that Valanka
Alemao is building a road. How can a lay person or even a minister say
that they have constructed a road? Every house has a right for an access
by law, no minister is doing a favour nor digging into his personal
wealth to construct a road, it is the exchequer’s money that is spent to
construct a public road. Unfortunately most of the roads that are said
to be constructed by Valanka have been washed away in less than three
months and the reason, be best left at Government Rest House at Monte
Dongor. Now this is also corruption as Valanka was using government
money to promote herself as a social worker and candidate thereby luring
voters to vote for her.
There are many allegations against the daughter of Churchill Alemao by
PWD contractors but I will restrain from going into the details. But
sticking to facts PWD minister has been humbled several times in the
assembly by the Opposition. Charges were traded against him for
corruption in the distribution of water tanks without approval from the
cabinet and finance department. Fatorda MLA brought it to the notice of
the assembly that PWD department had purchased 200 litres water tanks at
the cost of Rs. 7000 each, when a 1000 litres want tank cost Rs. 5000 in
the open market. Where did the difference disappear. Recently Opposition
Leader cornered him on the Rs. 100 crores Japanese funded sewerage
project and water augmentation project, wherein the PWD kept on hiking
the estimate of the project report and the Japanese agency kept on
rejecting it because they felt that the estimates prepared by PWD
department were not realistic. One can easily draw conclusion why the
estimates were being hiked every time by 40 percent instead of usual 15
percent.
Coming to roads constructed by the PWD during the tenure of Churchill
Alemao most of which have been washed away during rains, Infact Leader
of Opposition Manohar Parrikar took the minister on a whirlwind tour of
the capital city which is the former’s constituency to show the latter
the state of the roads. The reason for newly hotmixed roads to wash away
in one rain is because the cream (read 15 percent of the cost of road in
cash) is diverted into some account. Is this not corruption?
Coming to Urban Development minister Joaquim Alemao, Comptroller and
Auditor General of India has exposed his heist in their audit report.
They have uncovered his lapses purportedly committed to suit his pockets
rather than for public benefit. 5 Sweeping machines bought at the cost
of crores of rupees have not even been used once and are dumped in the
yards of different Municipalities. Wastage of public money. Is this not
corruption?
Goa State Urban Development Agency under Joaquim Alemao, tailor-made a
tender to suit the needs of Hyquip Company and awarded the contract of
treating garbage at Sonsoddo to this unknown company. Whooping Rs. 7.84
crores were flushed down the drains for this experiment. Is criminal
waste of exchequer’s money not corruption, then what is?
As a minister also holding Fisheries portfolio, Joaquim Alemao poured
crores of rupees in the pilot prawn hatchery project at Benaulim to
oversee its demise.
Even High Court has rapped ministries under Joaquim Alemao on the
knukles for wasteful expenditure. Infact High Court ordered sunbays
built by GSUDA to be demolished and cost recovered from officials of
GSUDA. All these are facts, which are recorded in the High Court and in
the audit report. The question is why did the minister take up such
projects, if it was only because of the huge amount of money involved
than the answer is obvious.
And we have here an immature spokesperson of the Congress party pointing
fingers at others when her house itself has to be set straight. In
conclusion this reminds me of an old saying, “Washing and washing a crow
never becomes a crane.” (ENDS)
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First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - November 10, 2011
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