IDENTITY CARD SCHEME BLUES
Ubaldo D’Souza, Dona Paula.

THE MNIC (Multipurpose National Identity Card) Pilot Project, for the implementation of which Tiswadi was chosen, has been going on for nearly a year now. From November 2003, I have been a regular visitor to the Collectorate Building in this connection. With great difficulty and after much persuasion, I was given the forms. I have been visiting the concerned office at the Collectorate practically every fortnight since March with the completed forms and have always been told that the enumerators would visit me at my residence to complete and collect the forms and then the verifiers would come to verify the work of the enumerators. Neither of them have appeared at my door. The office at the Collectorate refuses to accept the form.

In my enthusiasm and anxiety I have tried to find out which enumerator and verifier concerns our locality and building but not even the staff at the office has been able to tell me that! I have also confronted enumerator/verifier who visits across the street and she’s told me that she is not concerned and has been unable to identify who is covering my locality and building across the road. I am told that about 800 people have been drafted from various Government departments, mainly PWD, on this project and it is rumoured that not all of them complete their visits. A person I have been meeting in the course of some work told me that they came to his building and talked to one family and went away on the basis of what that family told them. Although the building is fully occupied, the other residents were not visited.

The MNIC is a noble and laudable project and overdue by a few decades. The big hoarding at the foot of Patto Bridge on the Panjim side exhorts citizens to cooperate in its implementation. Could the authorities say if any citizen has been non-cooperative or does the administration not have the will and wherewithal to implement this project in Tiswadi?

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST MINORITIES
Ex-Goa Civil Service, Grade I Officers, Goa.

The Government Gazette dated 05-08-04 notifies the confirmation of Mamlatdars posts of Mamlatdars. Those who have passed will be confirmed against the post and those who have failed will have umpteen changes to pass the same.

The purpose of writing this is to bring to your notice that in the cadre of Mamlatdars which has 32 incumbents recruited in the recent past through GPSC, there is only one belonging to the minority community. Such selection has never taken place before and this is the reality the minority community faces in Goa today. This is happening not only in the cadre of Mamlatdars but in all other cadres, be it drivers, peons, LDCs, BDOs, Goa Civil Service Gr.I, Gr.II, Police force, Corporations, PWD, Electricity Department, GMC, DHS, etc., etc. I am sure with this kind of attitude on the part of the present government the minority community will be wiped out from administrative services within a period of five years.

Please enlighten our minority ministers and others who make it possible for this rogue government to remain in power!

Editor’s note: Please see this issue’s “Stray Thoughts ”.

CONTROVERSIAL CONSTRUCTION OF DRAINS
Ramakant V. Naik, Orlim, Salcete, Goa.

THE SALCETE Block Development Officer is reported to have directed all the South Goa Panchayats to clean or construct road side drains before the onset of monsoons but very few are reported to have adhered to the instructions. The directives were consigned to the waste paper basket in the same manner the Deputy Director in South Goa shows laxity to the grievances of the public addressed to them.

The Orlim Village Panchayat was one of the defaulters because of the (mis) guidance of the mentors of the lady Sarpanch. The actual cleaning of drains started in July 2004 but a 40-metre drain was constructed at Gontonaik to benefit some and discriminate the opponents after the onset of the monsoon. Towards the end of July 2004, a controversial drain was alleged to have been constructed in the Varca Village Panchayat by the ousted lady Sarpanch of Orlim and it reveals her ignorance vis-à-vis Orlim village topography. A third party who found the entrance to her house blocked by a knee deep trench was found moving from pillar to post for justice. A victim of the callous attitude of the lady Sarpanch!

These days water drains are being constructed at Demonaik Dessonaik Wards by the side of district PWD roads. The 100-meter trench that is dug is touching the compound wall of a cloth merchant’s residence and since no objection is being raised, it indicates that the compound wall is illegally constructed beyond the acquired land for the expansion of district road. One of the parties in Demonaik Ward along the district road has stopped the construction of the water drain as it is her private property. The interested local Panch tried to convince the party in vain. Such is the complicated story of water drains in Orlim because the Panchas are relying on destructive mentors!

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