The rivalries between Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane have spilt into the open once again, this time over jobs. On Wednesday, Sawant, while making a veiled reference to Rane, said he does not have the habit of giving jobs only to people from his constituency. A day later, the health minister took to Facebook to announce a proposal to create more posts to upgrade the Emergency Medicine Department at Goa Medical College and Hospital.
Rane has been perennially accused of earmarking health department and GMC job quotas for his Valpoi constituency and the matter has even reached the high court. However, Sawant too has been accused of favouring candidates from Sanquelim, the recent being over jobs at the Mopa airport. While ministers seeking job quotas for the constituency they represent has been an unhealthy trend because it overrides merit, the Mopa scenario could be seen as an exception given the circumstances.
The Chief Minister, while discounting that Mopa jobs haven’t been diverted to Sanquelim, stated that 500-plus people have got permanent employment at Mopa and all of them are from Pernem and assured that more people from the area will be recruited soon. On the face of it, the announcement appeared to be some consolation to the aggrieved people of Pernem. However, a cursory look at the data reveals that only menial jobs of security men, cargo screeners, fire-fighters, etc are allocated, not any position of authority. Also, the claim that these are permanent jobs is misleading because they are sub-contracted openings that have no clause of permanent employment.
Interestingly, one section of the data reveals that 182 candidates have applied for the Aviation Multi-Skill Development Centre, against which an allocation is made of 143 for those hailing from Pernem taluka. The irony is that the Centre is still not operational, six months later, even though the airport is expected to be operational by August this year, roughly two months away.
Sawant’s figure of job allocation to 500 people from Pernem creates an illusion of gratification but is hollow from the inside. It offers false comfort to the people who have lost land and livelihoods and are waiting endlessly for some compensation to arrive. The need of the hour was to be sympathetic and accommodating to at least those who have suffered land losses. On paper, the job promise only flatters to deceive.
There is a grave injustice being done to the people of Pernem, and to those who have lost their land for Mopa airport development because most of them are still awaiting compensation. Also, it sets a poor precedent for big-ticket proposals that follow a similar template where the government will need people’s cooperation. The oft-repeated slogan of engaging and compensating project-affected people will find no takers given the background of Mopa.
The government needs to get into confidence-building measures and ensure that at least the livelihoods of Mopa locals are secured and they are gainfully employed. Mopa is undergoing an unparalleled development on a scale which Goa has never seen before. When the discourse is about inclusive and sustainable development, it must be ensured that the people of Goa, and more especially, the sons of that soil become partners in this progress.
