For all his simplicity of looks and day to day conduct, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) State president 'Sada'nand Shet Tanavade is not all that simple, it seems, going by his 'I am ready to become Rajya Sabha MP' give away .
In the BJP inner circles it is no secret that the one-term MLA harboured ambition to corner the party ticket for the North Goa Lok Sabha seat held by Union minister Shripad Naik since 1999. In fact, the protocol snubs faced by Naik in the recent past at the hands of sections in the government and the party unit in the State are said to have been inspired by the chanakyas linked to him.
But when Naik took umbrage and publicly admonished the 'petty insults' the elders in the party quickly moved to proffer better counsel and eke out a truce, foisting 'Sada'nand's name for the lone Rajya Sabha seat which falls vacant this July when Vinay Tendulkar's term ends, so Naik can defend his seat for his sixth inning, unhindered.
Tanavade meanwhile all but spilled the beans of this internal 'Bhau for North Goa, Tanavade for RS' deal when the BJP general secretary in-charge of Goa C T Ravi came visiting this week.
With journos engaging him on the subject, the otherwise wheatish complexioned Tanavade went all pink as he blurted out in a school boyish demeanour: "If the party wants me to go, I am ready to go to Rajya Sabha."
It's politics after all and our advice to the unassuming BJP state chief would be, do not count your chicken before it is hatched.
Journo, activist engage in tit-for-tat
It’s even-stevens in between a journo and an activist in their game of one-upmanship.
A social activist appears to have got his match after a journalist filed a complaint against the alleged illegal construction of his house.
Based on the complaint from the journalist from the vernacular press, the Mapusa Municipal Council issued a notice for a joint site inspection last week.
However, on the appointed day, the entire Mapusa civic body team, including the municipal engineer, municipal inspector, police and the complainant returned empty handed on finding the house under lock and key.
The journalist seems to baying for his revenge since it was the activist who had filed a similar complaint against an illegal bungalow reportedly belonging to the scribe.
For now, it looks like the social activist has had the last laugh but as they say in our national language “' picture tho tak bakhi hai'.
Let’s wait and see how this battle of wits pans out. Watch this space for more on this.
Mapusa commuters taken for a ride?
Back in April, Mapusa MLA Joshua D'Souza went all guns blazing asserting that all roads in town would be tarred before the rains hit.
"The public is facing inconvenience for past seven months. Tarring of roads was not done because they were dug up, and we did not wish to waste taxpayer's money,” he had said.
Fast forward two months later and one-half of the road leading up to St Xavier's College is yet to be re-carpeted, leaving the MLA no choice but to admit defeat meekly citing the excuse of "cumbersome tendering process" for failing to deliver before the rains.
Who will face the brunt of the administration's failure to resurface the roads on time will be Mapusa's commuters. With the blessings of the MLA errr... rain gods, the public's period of inconvenience has got extended from nine months to until the rains come and go.
Golf courses: From playground
to battleground
Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane this week said that in order to boost tourism in the State, basic infrastructure has to be put in place: farmhouses, golf courses and wellness centres.
The questions, however, linger: Does Goa need golf courses right now? Who will really benefit? Not many people play golf anyway and the ones who do, usually have deep pockets. Golf courses also need plenty of water to maintain and Goa continues to reel under a water crisis especially in the long summer months.
Will these golf courses being planned for be the next playground that Goans will battle over?
The celebrities of bastis
Seasoned Goan politicians have been accused of nurturing their vote-banks in bastis where amenities seem to reach effortlessly.
Recently, videos were doing the rounds of the RGP boys on a hunt to gun down these politicians by entering their territory. They have accused politicians including Michael Bab, Sudin Dhavalikar and Reginald of allowing land-grabs, besides other illegalities to nurture their vote-banks. At 'Kargil', the boys have already revealed the waste water discharge on the roads from the bastis and Reginaldo is being accused for this mess.
At Shapur-Madkai, the bastion of Dhavalikar, the boys were seen in a conversation with a voter (she revealed about voting for Sudin) who outrightly said that 'Dhavalikar sir' gives them all the necessary help, including money.
"Humara sab kaam karta hai," the woman is depicted as saying in the video shot by the 'boys' who stirred a hornet's nest in Candolim where they alleged land grabbing in thousands of square metres courtesy Michael Bab and the local panchayat who are encouraging illegal constructions in bastis.
An elderly lady alleged on camera that nearly 5000 sq metres of her land has been grabbed off by 'outsiders', over which she has been fighting for over 15 years.
The hill in the village has also been cropped for these illegal constructions and apparently, the established politicians known to talk big about stopping illegalities have gone mum.
Let's not travel to Moti Dongor today!
