This one beats #ShakeChilly logic
Two major government interventions, ostensibly to clean and spruce up ‘Brand Goa’ dominated the news space this week.
First, the order issued by the Tourism Department, which warned all and sundry, tourists, touts, hawkers, beggars and generally anyone and everyone engaged in milking Goa’s tourism pie: Big Brother will be watching, and you will be fined for ‘nuisance’.
Second, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant led the State in observing the ‘Vigilance Week’ where he indulged in a bit of self-praise claiming that at least a dozen government officials had been ‘suspended’ throughout his tenure as CM since 2019.
But even as Sawant tom-tommed the ‘Vigilance Week’ message and the Tourism Department unleashed its anti-nuisance resolve, the latter went about in its business-as-usual manner, giving vigilance a wink.
The Tourism Department has advertised a tender to lease to the department 10 ‘Mahindra Thar’ vehicles for five years. These five swanky, high-end jeeps, according to the tourism department’s tender, will be used by the Goa Police to keep a watch over the nuisance-makers along tourist places and beaches they will patrol.
What is inexplicable is why the ‘babus’ in the tourism department aren’t being vigilant enough to assess this ‘hire 10 Mahindra Thars’ decision with the question ‘why hire, why not buy’ the high-end vehicles.
Should the tender go for quotes at half the current ‘hiring’ market rates of roughly Rs 5,500 per day, the cost of hiring each vehicle will equal the cost of buying outright the high-end jeep at (approximately Rs 16-odd lakhs per vehicle) in barely eighteen months. Which means, should the department decide to buy the vehicles, the cost would equal what it would pay the contractor who wins the tender for 18 months. Which further means, it would then use them without costs for the remainder 42 months of the five-year tendered contract and still own the asset of the 10 vehicles.
The transaction is in process. The ongoing vigilance week we hope flags this penny-wise-pound-foolish move and this ‘attempt to scam’ is not allowed to blossom into a full-fledged scam. A stitch in time saves nine, but in this case it could save 10.
Cong to bank on disqualification again
The beleaguered Opposition Congress party is not willing to relent and is preparing to hold its ground in Goa’s politics. Earlier this week, its State president Amit Patkar and one of three legislators Carlos Almeida announced it would file petitions to seek the disqualification of the eight MLAs who crossed over to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
This, despite its not-so-encouraging experience with a similar tactic in the previous term of the Goa legislative assembly, when it similarly suffered a mass defection by 10 of its 15 legislators back in 2019 with the petitions of former GPCC chief Girish Chodankar failing to make the cut with the Speaker and his subsequent pleas before the judiciary outliving the term of the Assembly. The Alvares-Patkar duo claim they have good grounds to seek the disqualification of the defectors, based on the documents the party has been given by the office of the Speaker.
Goa’s past experiences with disqualification petitions under the Xth Schedule and past legal precedents do not inspire much hope with respect to the Speaker, a constitutional authority, adjudicating the matter which in anyway will harm the interest of the ruling dispensation. However, it’s not the Speaker but in two other Constitutional remedies that the hopes of the Congress in seeking justice would lie -- the Supreme Court of India and the Election Commission of India.
The developments in Maharashtra, where a group of Shiv Sena legislators switched allegiance to bring down the Uddhav Thackeray-led government is being adjudicated by the ECI on which faction is the actual Shiv Sena and the Apex Court is also adjudicating the entire political development in toto.
Results of the proceedings before the ECI and the Supreme Court of India have the potential to set new precedents vis-a-vis party splits and mergers and thus provide the Congress party in Goa fresh grounds to seek the disqualification of its eight former MLAs.
It’s therefore not Tawardkar but the ECI and the Supreme Court that the hopes of the Congress in Goa hinge on and it may actually delay filing the pleas before the Goa Speaker at least until the verdicts in the Maharashtra matters emerge.
Congress leader goes mute
Unlike others in the Congress, this particular leader believes in speaking less or rather not speak at all.
He’s a former sarpanch, four time-panchayat member of Reis Magos village panchayat and presently holds a significant post in the district Congress panel in North Goa.
Yes, you guessed it right. We are speaking of the President of North Goa District Congress Committee (NGDCC) Virendra Shirodkar who has been attending several press conferences in the paty office in Mapusa but never utters a word.
He prefers to sit among the other Congress leaders and face the cameras but maintains a dignified silence. With Shirodkar preferring to remain a silent spectator, the former district chief Vijay Bhike gets an opportunity to hog the limelight at the media briefings.
When a journo confronted the Congress leader (albeit after the media briefing) for his mute performance, Shirodkar’s frank response was, “I cannot speak.”
Well, for a leader who as a sarpanch must have presided over several gram sabha meetings and even addressed other political functions in the village, it’s hard to believe. We tried to dig a little deeper and found that the NGDCC chief maintains more than a cordial relation with Saligao MLA Kedar Naik who has recently jumped ship along with seven other Congress MLAs.
Even in the recent ZP by-election from Verem, Shirodkar had stayed away from campaigning for the official Congress candidate. Who he actually supported is anybody’s guess.
Taxiwalla the only villain?
Goa’s fishermen have for several weeks now netted a bumper catch of mackerels. So much so that the tasty ‘bangdo’ which at times fetched the retail fisherfolk in local markets a price upwards of Rs 50 apiece has now plummeted and is being sold in bulk (the ‘pantlo’) being the measure instead of fetching a price per piece. Since September, it is available at all local markets for a price under Rs 10 apiece, in fact.
But the drop in price does not proportionately reflect in menus of restaurants across the State, especially in coastal tourist spots where the typical plate of ‘Reichado Bangdo’ continues to be priced at a premium Rs 200 or thereabouts earning restaurateurs whopping margins.
Ask an average tourist and you will not be surprised to hear complaints that food in Goa is pretty prohibitive on the pocket. It’s no surprise therefore that many groups of tourist often resort to cooking their own meals in open spaces, so much so that the government has now clubbed it as ‘nuisance’ and resolved to fine the activity.
But then the ‘rogue’ taxiwala is the only villain earning Goa a bad name for the hospitality honchos, self-appointed ambassadors of #TourismGoa and sundry.
Compiled by Ashley do Rosario with inputs from Agnelo Pereira.
