Father of Goenkarponn ignored
Today is the day the State remembers the death anniversary of its first chief minister with politicians across party lines lining up to pay homage and floral tributes at various places where his bust, his statue and other installations are erected in his memory.
However, this piece isn't about that. On the contrary it is about his political rival. If you were to follow the proceedings of the recently concluded Goa Legislative Assembly closely, you would have noticed that several legislators most notably Michael Lobo of Calangute having on more than one occasion sought that a larger than life sized statue of the Father of the Opinion poll Jack de Sequeira or to contemporize the term -- the Father of Goenkarponn -- be erected within the precinct of the Goa Legislative Assembly complex.
Lobo even went to the extent of saying that Bandodkar was feeling alone because his colleague in Goa's first legislative assembly was not standing next to him.
However, if you were paying real close attention, you would have noticed that across three weeks and fifteen days, none in the BJP, most notably the otherwise very vocal Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar even reacted to the demand. Not that they rejected it, they just simply ignored it.
So much for the Goenkarponn government walking the talk.
Glued to tourism
It was back in March when the order first came out. In a major reshuffle of sorts, several senior bureaucrats were move around. Among the big changes were those in the Tourism Department where both the Director of Tourism and the Managing Director of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation were assigned different roles and others were posted in their position.
We're now in the month of August, four months down the line and while the former Director of Tourism Sanjeev Gauns Desai has moved on and his post is now taken up by the former Commissioner of Excise Menino D'Souza, the Managing Director of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation is staying put.
After having secured at least three extensions to vacating his post and to take up new responsibilities as the Director of Transport, Nikhil Desai has secured yet another.
This time the extension is indefinite without a specific date to move on.
Currently, Desai is holding charge of both as MD of the GTDC which he has refused to let go and that of the Director of Transport.
Now while there is nothing illegal or even morally wrong in Desai having clung on for so long, we can't help but wonder what is the glue that has helped him remain attached to the GTDC despite it all.
Panaji has no one to call its own
If, as expected, the turnout in the Panaji by-poll is low, one can't help but sympathise with the people of Panaji. Having to contend with four elections in five years, all because of the needs of the BJP party, and not any real love for the city, the people of Panaji must surely be feeling like faeces -- the kind of that flows through the Santa Ines creek without any resolution in sight.
To add insult to injury none of the candidates who are in the fray for this crucial assembly constituency are even born and brought up in this city. And barring Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who somewhat, is a voter in Panaji as he has been for the last several decades, despite not living there, none of the sparring candidates are even voters in the city. Girish is from Margao, Kenneth Silveira is from Dabolim and we believe Anand Shirodkar is a registered voter in the village on the outskirts of Panaji.
Now one might argue that the same is the case of Valpoi now going to the polls and several other constituencies, but are we to suggest that the capital city cannot throw up even one man of the calibre and steel to represent his own city?
Kind of reflects badly on the city doesn't it? At least thankfully, the Municipal Corporation isn't imported as well.
Stealing the show
The Congress Aldona candidate Amarnath Panjikar is an unlucky man. He was one of the few if not the only Congress candidate to have lost the election because of the lurking presence of the Aam Aadmi Party, who ate into a large chunk of the anti-BJP vote.
And while it is the AAP which had promised that they would go back to the drawing board and continue their work with the people in order to come back stronger the next time, it is Amarnath, a teacher by profession, who has taken the advice seriously.
Panjikar has been active on social media as well as on the ground making his voice heard on a range of issues, most particularly that of the bad state of roads that the Aldona commuters have to face while moving to and from Mapusa. So much so that, Panjikar's opinions have overflowed to include that of Mapusa has ended up raising more issues about Mapusa than whatever opposition to Francis D'Souza is there within the constituency.
How's that for killing two birds with one stone? While D'Souza can sit pretty, one man who better be worried is Glenn Souza Ticlo.
