IF I WERE TO BE THE CM OF GOA “Floriano? Chief Minister of Goa?” Is he kidding? “…. would be the chorus which could make any normal person with normal hearing, deaf .
“Why? Just because he believes that the Party he has helped form some decade and a half ago [which party is not even known to 5 per cent of Goans that it exists] is the only party that can save Goa? First, Let him get himself elected as the Panch member of his Moira Panchayat and then talk about being the CM of Goa. There is a limit to wishful thinking….” Well, wishful thinking or not, let me get to the basics of putting a real CM of Goa in the august seat to spur the expectations of Goans that they have for Goa and who have come a long way since December 19 of 1961.. One of the very first things that I would do, along with my [four] cabinet colleagues, if I were to be elected (not made) CM of Goa, at the post Election Party Convention, would be to do ‘NOTHING’ for the first couple of weeks or so. Why? Because I would not have to break my head over whom to give what cabinet berth and whom to keep out. In the bargain I would make more enemies than friends, to start with. This difficult job of selecting the CM and the cabinet in one go and to distribute balanced portfolio charts to all will have been taken care of by my Party at the post election Party convention, to spare me the acute headache. All that I would want to do is to snatch the cosy, carefree, peaceful night’s slumber from Goa’s bureaucratic heads for one, while I and my Cabinet colleagues relaxed to ease out the hectic election campaign-trail fatigue and got ourselves acquainted with the staff of various departments with whom we would be working closely for the next 5 years, as also to chart out a course of action to right the wrongs as portrayed in the Party’s ‘bible’ , the ROADMAP FOR GOA. I say 5 year term because the people of Goa (I will not say ‘Goans’ because a sizeable number of the people who would be responsible to get my Party elected with full majority would be non-Goans, who love Goa just as well and whom my party refers to as ‘Goa lovers’), being frustrated with the inefficient, lackadaisical, highhanded, hidden agenda oriented previous governments, placating the rich and the affluent resulting in Goa’s treasury having gone bankrupt creating more problems than solving them. On the question of how I would be giving sleepless nights to the bureaucratic heads. Well, since my government would be fully functional the day after the ‘low profile’ oath taking ceremony at the Raj Bhavan [low profile in order not to further burden the already creaking treasury under the humongous load of public debts] immediately following the conclusion of the post election Party convention, the oath having been taken collectively with my cabinet colleague in loud and clear ‘KONKANI’; the seating of the first Cabinet would take place the day after taking of the oath of office. Summons would have been sent to all heads of departments to be present for the crucial introductory meet with the new Cabinet at the conference hall of the secretariat. This meet would have set the agenda for the government’s day to day working for the rest of the term, primarily, sending a clear signal to all departmental heads that ‘punctuality’ in office timings would be on test with serious repercussions over the laxity of functioning on their continuance as heads of departments. This meet would have given the department heads sleepless nights in order to reactivate their departments to the diligent working mode. My government would have changed the very concept of ‘ Cabinet Meetings’ from ‘once in a blue moon’ to an every day affair where the cabinet members would meet on every day basis to discuss, approve and/or disapprove decisions and agree to disagree on ‘policy implementation’ problems so that the governance of the State is not hindered, as also to keep the government departments on pins to serve the people the way they should. Each cabinet member would be free to voice his appreciations and/or his objections with respect to the implementation of the government policies irrespective of who held the portfolios, and there would be no such thing as ‘you mind your portfolio and I shall mind mine” thing, since the cabinet would be working in a perfectly co-ordinated manner to remove the independence of ministers to do what they liked with their portfolios. And the press would be a part and parcel of the cabinet decision making process so that the people of Goa would not be kept hungry and/or in the dark to know what is being cooked for them so that they could sharpen their taste buds or shy away from the bitter medicines My government would be in no hurry to prove to the people that it is doing an excellent job through publication of photographs of CM and Ministers inaugurating kiosks, public toilets, of breaking coconuts over the hot-mixing machines and foundation stones of projects, of taking brooms in hand or picking up garbage parcels from the roadsides and/or to have posters of Ministers and MLAs painting the towns and cities sporting colourful turbans, worshiping at Shree Ganesha’s pandals etc.,, or, of dishing out doles to the people. The task at hand would be to see that the existing rules, regulations and laws were adhered to by one and all without exceptions through decentralized departments having put them on a ‘competition’ mode with other departments to excel. Needless to say that the WHIP of a multi-tiered inspectorate raj would be unleashed to catch people on the wrong foot at all stages, may it be a simple throwing of supposed God’s flowers wrapped in plastic bags into the river waters over bridges, cute little garbage parcels dropped on the roadsides from cars.and two wheelers or tankerloads of industrial toxic effluents eased into rivers under the cover of the nights, etc. . The major task that my government would face would be to devolve powers to the Panchayats and the Municipalities under the 73rd and 74th. amendments to the Constitution and stop the haggling that has been going on forever between these bodies and the government over the transfer of powers. However, this exercise would take place only after the well thought of amendments to the Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, and the Municipalities Act, 1968, have been notified, where the elected Sarpanchas and the Municipal Chairpersons, respectively, would be held totally and completely accountable and responsible for the conduct of these institutions with prescribed penalties for violations of the conduct rules with even jail terms for serious dereliction of duties and/or for promoting illegalities and corruption. My Party’s understanding is that if the functioning of the Sarpanchas and the Municipal Chairpersons is streamlined and straightened out, without loopholes for them to slither away and/or to be protected, the work load on the Department heads shall be drastically reduced and they can utilize the time in enhancing the supervision of these bodies. The present ‘pot of gold’, meaning, the developmental funds which keeps the Legislators warmed–up and who are reluctant to part with it, would be distributed among the Panchayats and the Municipalities with an attitude or disposition of the ‘DOG IN THE MANGER’, where, if the Legislators CANNOT have the bone and eat it too, they will see to it that they will enact such laws and rules that the Panchayats and Municipalities also cannot eat it to grow fat. Every single paisa would be accounted for as well as the execution of the works would be certified through laboratory sample testing if cement-concrete or tarring or hot-mixing of roads is concerned. This would require that the present system of floating the public -works tenders undergoes a sea change where the contractors would be penalized [possibly black-listed] for inferior works and or cost over-runs. For this purpose, a special tendering cell would be created where the criterion would be ‘BEST FOR LESS’. With the ‘commissions’ raj abolished, the contractors [ or the contracting firms ] would bid taking into account cost effectiveness, as they would not be able to get away by using inferior materials and sloppy work techniques to increase their profit margins. All this would have sent a crystal clear signal through Goa’s circulatory system to the increasing numbers of those who create a stampede for filing their nomination papers to contest elections to public offices as panchas and municipal councilors nursing the only agenda of growing fat by cutting corners and defrauding the taxpayers of their hard-earned money , that this exercise is counter productive and that they would be better off engaging themselves in getting a job or finding some work to earn their daily bread. . My government’s endeavour would be to provide to the people of Goa the best of administrative services on time bound basis at the levels of Panchayat and Municipalities and other essential government services, their applications accepted if complete and returned if found deficient. so that they may fill in the deficiencies first shot rather than be made to run from pillar to post, with every such institution provided with Public Relations desk for their qualified guidance. The people of Goa would also be provided with excellent Law and Order regimen where those who would fear the law would be the minority of willful law-breakers. My government would see to it that the law-breakers would decide that they better be on the side of the law as they would not be able to purchase the law enforcers or get away through the intervention by government Ministers and MLAs. And the law enforcers themselves would want to remain compulsorily happy and contented with what they get as their monthly remunerations that the tax-payers dole out to keep them in good stead. My government would see to it that the people of Goa get impeccable traffic regulation on priority basis that would save lives and limbs, as also be heavily penalized for breaking traffic laws so that Goa would observe traffic discipline which has never been seen before.. Governmental exercise of guiding/educating the road users would be prevalent over the electronic and print media for such period of time to allow thorough percolation to the masses at large where prescribed penalties for violations would be kept in abeyance during this period and all offenses would be noted, be pointed out and/or corrected with a pat on the back so to speak. But after this guidance/educating period has been withdrawn, the penalties would be strictly enforced and the willful violators would be made to bleed in the larger interest of the safety on roads. This, according to my Party, is the only solution to create a safe environment for commuting by roads in undisciplined Goa.. Every road intersection of cities and towns throughout Goa would have electronically controlled road signals within a stipulated time frame from the take-over of the government by my Party to remove the monopoly of just one road signal post installed at the N.H. 17 - O’Coqueiro junction in North Goa.To facilitate those who do not care for driving or riding guidelines, rules and regulations, every road in cities and towns would compulsorily have arrow'd road markings clearly defining one-ways and turning curves.as well as Zebra pedestrian crossings and angular parking slots Acute and or blind turn in all rural area would be compulsorily installed with reflector/mirrored posts so that tragedies of collisions are avoided. Similarly each and every speed- breaker in entire Goa would be magically transformed as if ‘overnight’ to make them smooth, easy and commuter friendly on a strict uniform specification guideline [W: 2m. H: 20cm] to qualify as speed-breakers from the present BACK-BREAKERS with each speed-breaker preceded with a easy rumbling strips to indicate the presence of speed breakers, to do away with visual signages. In my government, the departments that would see a sea change with immediate effect would be the Public Transport, Public Health, liberating the health officers from their desk-borne duties and putting them back into circulation to check the all round state of sanitation and hygiene within their jurisdictions. Goa’s cities and towns would have found themselves spotlessly swept and cleant before 6. a.m. to change the present lordly banker’s timings of the city and town cleaners from 10.00 a.m. to 5 p.m. and rid the prevalent 24x7x365 day mosquito menace. My government would create a ‘SINGLE WINDOW ‘ for the clearance of industries for Goa where the entrepreneurs or industrialists would not be required to be closeted with the CM and/or the Industries minister but be a guest of the government of Goa where they or their representatives could have a cup of tea/coffee, enjoy the excellent ambience of the Industries Office and go home with a brochure which would guide them on Goa’s preferences to industry set up, If they were interested in setting up polluting and/or labour intensive industries, they would have gone home dejected. If they were interested in setting up any industry listed in the brochure, they would be welcomed with open arms and thoroughly facilitated in everything so that they did not have to knock on Goa’s Panchayats or Municipal doors and get half eaten. All clearances would be given on a silver platter if such clearances fitted into the scheme of things, and, of course, into Goa’s REGIONAL PLAN for industry set up and for regulating all aspects of development of the state of Goa which ‘RP’ would be in force for 10 years after notification with no amendments whatsoever allowed unless through ORDINANCE/s for acute emergency purposes only, and nothing else. The planning for the following ‘RP’ would commence concurrently with the notified ‘RP’ so that when the notified ‘RP’ expired, the new one gets notified without a day’s delay. The emphasis would be on service and compatible industries like IT, hospitality and agriculture. The presently installed INVESTMENT PROMOTION BOARD would either be made compatible with the Single Window as above or be entirely scrapped. My government would create Goa as the Education Hub rather than a manufacturing hub. With Goa University upgraded to have student exchange programmes with world’s Universities with tremendously improved University Campus grounds, ridding of all non-education facilities and encroachments. Goa’s education system would be rid of all political interferences as well as political party based manoeuvres like Student Union Elections on political Party lines. My government would get rid of any and all reservations. The selections would be on the basis of merit alone, in keeping with the wishes of the father of the Indian Constitution, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. The under privileged sections would be funded and aided to come up to the standards of stipulated merits lists and those who cleared the merit baseline would be accommodated before the rest with first preferences. Along with the above ban, there would be a ban on firecrackers above the notified decibel levels. This means that the State of Goa would enjoy peace whether it is one festive season or the other with no atom and/or neutron bombs shaking people, especially elders and infants out of their skins. And the nightmare of loud music noise pollution would be eradicated once and for all with Goa maintained as a music loving State where those who wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet, those who wanted to study in peace , those who wanted to dance and enjoy to their heart’s content and those who wanted to make money in the entertainment industry by catering to loud music without a bother or without the curse of acquiring permissions from the authorities at every turn, may do so without encroaching on the fundamental rights of the others. With the grass-roots administration working for the people of Goa at the Panchayat and Municipal levels, with Regional Plan in total command of scheme of things, with law and order in vibrant state, the State of Goa would be limping back to enjoy peace and tranquility of which Goans have been dreaming about and getting frustrated. With orderly redressal of public and private grievances, there would be no need for darnas, demonstrations and strikes. Bandhs of any sort would be BANNED. And most importantly Goa under my tenure as the CM would certainly not entertain nor fund communal organizations such as Ram Sene, Sanatan Saunstha and others like them with a permanent ban imposed to keep them out as according to the wishes of the people of this ‘secular state’ to maintain secular neutrality. And, I would have fulfilled my ambitions that went into the founding of the Goa Su-Raj Party and implementing its ROADMAP FOR GOA in letter and spirit which ROADMAP contains much much more that needs to be done for Goa and Goans, that what has been mentioned above would only scratch the surface. And, I would not be interested in contesting any future elections but return to the party to remain in the senior position just like Mr. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, to guide the Party and to enjoy the peace that my Party’s rule would have brought to my beloved Goa and to its much troubled peoples since 1961 and before, so that they may excel and prosper. And, with utter satisfaction, I would await my final call in the hope that I stayed alive to see GOA SU-RAJ attaining the stature of being INDIA SU-RAJ before my departure. And last but not the least, for those who have been advising me to first get myself elected as a panch members of my Panchayat, I want to tell them without any ill feelings that as the founding President of my Party, I had passed two unwritten rules at the last brain-storming session when the constitution of the Party was approved by 16 founding members, that, (1) As far as possible, Ex and/or incumbent MLAs would be kept away from the Party, and, (2) No executive member of the Party shoud contest either the Panchayat or the Municipal elections. That we as a Party are proud that both these unwritten rules have been respected even after 15 years of the Party’s slow and steady existence. End.