IFFI: BHAILE MAKE MEGA BUCKS

AND A FEW MORE stray thoughts and a few more observations for yet another Sunday. For a Sunday following the week when Dr. Wilfred D’Souza was making a renewed attempt at toppling the government to return to the chief minister’s kodel. For a Sunday following the week when we got a tantalizing glimpse into employment creation, Manohar Parrikar-style. For a Sunday following the week when we became aware of how pathetic the state of higher education in Goa is. For a Sunday following the week when we are in a position to give you details of how much money all the bhaile consultants and their collaborators have already made and will be making from IFFI-related projects. For a Sunday following the week when the wheel came full circle with the BJP top brass returning to Goa, this time to mourn and not to plan strategy for their capture of Delhi.

And a few stray thoughts on the latest political developments in Goa. When Delhi sneezes, Goa gets a cold. In a reversal of the syndrome with the changes in the composition of the Congress High Command in Delhi Dr. Wilfred D’Souza, the Nationalist Congress Party Chief, is in high spirits. Wily Willy may soon return to the Congress Party. Dr. Wilfred D’Souza along with other top honchos of the NCP have in any case been knocking on the Congress doors ever since the news leaked out that Sharad Pawar’s days are literally numbered. The rumour mill has it that Sharad Pawar is suffering from terminal cancer. What has brought about a dramatic change in the fortunes of Dr. Wilfred D’ Souza is the the reshuffle in the All India Congress Committee. A close confidant and intimate friend of Dr. Wilfred D’Souza is now the General Secretary in charge of Maharashtra and Goa, none other than Margaret Alva who has always had close ties with Goa and with Dr. Wilfred D’Souza in particular. At one stage Niranjan Alva, husband of Margaret Alva, used to run a shark fin export business from Goa. In view of his proximity to Margaret Alva, Dr. Wilfred D’Souza is back to plotting and scheming to topple the Manohar Parrikar government and anoint himself the chief minister. Dr. Wilfred D’Souza has reportedly held extensive discussions with the deposed czar of Benaulim Micky Pacheco as well as Sudhin Dhavlikar, the lone Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party representative in the Parrikar government.

Wily Willy is reportedly in touch with several of the minority community MLAs both in the Congress and the ruling group. Amongst those he is wooing ardently is Filipe Neri, the Minister for Irrigation, who is very upset with Parrikar because he did not get the promised tourism portfolio. The formula being put together is that Dr. Wilfred D’Souza will return to the Congress and replace Pratapsing Raoji Rane as the Congress Legislative Party chief. Willy may not encounter any opposition from the Congress High Command but he is wary of the Congress Low Command. As has been the tradition in Goa, it is the minority community MLAs who take delight in katorfying other minority community leaders. We understand that the biggest obstacle to the latest plan for displacing the Parrikar government is the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President, Luizinho Faleiro. But as against that Willy seems to have managed to secure the support of the shrewdest politician in the state, Dayanand Narvekar. In the light of what we know and hear we wonder if it was just a coincidence that both Babush Monserrate andDayanand Narvekar were at the Cidade de Goa at the same time on Saturday night.

And talking of the dissentions within the Congress, it is now conclusively proved that at least three Congress legislators including the Leader of the Opposition, Pratapsing Raoji Rane, have been closely collaborating with the Parrikar government . On the floor of the house Congress leaders, including Rane, may be going through the motions of raising hard questions about the irregularities in IFFI-related projects. But contrary to the claims of the GPCC chief Luizinho Faleiro, replies to assembly questions reveal that Congress legislators were a party to all the decisions on IFFI. Luizinho Faleiro has claimed that although Pratapsing Raoji Rane, Alex Sequeira and Anna Zantye are members of the IFFI core committee, they were not taken into confidence and had not even been invited to the meetings of the core committee. This lie has been conclusively nailed with the records indicating that Pratapsing Raoji Rane and Alex Sequeira were present at 10 of the 12 meetings the IFFI core committee has had so far. And of course Anna Zantye desperately hoping that a few crumbs will be thrown his way has been present at all the 12 meetings. 

JOB CREATION
AND A FEW stray thoughts on employment generation Manohar Parrikar-style. Conscious of the fact that industrial development has come to a grinding halt, Manohar Parrikar had come up with the idea of pre-employment training to address the frustration of educated youth in the State. Except that, as we have repeatedly pointed out, there has been no transparency in recruitment in the pre-employment scheme and the only beneficiaries have been RSS cadres and others close to the ruling group. In the normal course all private organizations employing more than 25 have to go through the employment exchange for any fresh recruitment. But apparently the government is an exception to its own rules. The government insisted on recruiting the pre-employment trainees directly without drawing on huge waiting lists on the rolls of the employment exchange. In the case of the police force there have been widespread complaints that even basic minimum norms were bypassed. Senior police officers refer contemptuously to the Parrikar police who are neither physically fit nor have an aptitude for policing.

Replies to Assembly questions reveal how cavalierly the government has been going about employing staff. Jobs are being created virtually out of thin air and without any thought to the job requirements. A case in point is the recruitment to the post of lower division clerks. Assembly questions reveal that the government has selected 773 candidates under the pre-employment training scheme for filling posts of LDCs. Never mind that the number of vacancies is only 450. One would expect that LDCs or even LDC trainees for that matter would at least be given a typing test. Though it would be more appropriate to insist that all LDC aspirants should be computer literate since typewriters belong to the stone age of governance. Surprisingly, the pre-employment trainees in the LDC category were not even required to pass a typing test. When asked about efficiency, the Chief Minister is reported to have replied that efficiency cannot be a consideration as those recruited are still under training. And asked whether they were given a typing test before being enrolled as trainees, the CM told the Assembly that the typing test would be given at the end of the training. Is it any surprise that the quality of governance has deteriorated so sharply in the State?

NO FACULTY
AND A FEW observations on the abysmal quality of higher education in the State.There has been a lot of hype about higher education in the State ever since Manohar Parrikar came to power. With a view to upgrading the standards of teaching at the government-owned Goa Engineering College, Parrikar, an IITian himself, entered into an MOU with the Indian Institute of Technology. A senior member of the IIT faculty in Mumbai was persuaded to become the principal of the Goa Engineering College. There has also been talk about the IIT setting up a satellite centre in Goa. All of which is fine and there is no gainsaying the fact that technical education in Goa is in shambles and needs to be desperately upgraded. But surely the first priority should be to ensure that institutions imparting professional training have an adequate number of staff. Surely professional colleges cannot impart quality education if they do not have adequate teachers. But apparently the Chief Minister, who has his head in the clouds, is not bothered with the grim ground reality. There are as many as 44 posts lying vacant in the Goa College of Engineering at Farmagudi. These include 11 posts of professors, 12 posts of assistant professors and 21 posts of lecturers.

The other government professional colleges in the State do not seem to be in a better position. The Goa College of Pharmacy was forced to reduce its intake by the All India Council of Technical Education because it did not have adequate staff. This at a time when the demand for pharmacy graduates and diploma holders is at an all time high because the pharmaceutical industry is the only industry which has been steadily growing in Goa. As many as 11 posts, five at the level of professors, three at the level of assistant professors and three at the lectures level, remain unfilled at the Goa Pharmacy College. We know now why the government and Manohar Parrikar do not trust local architects except for a few chamchas. The quality of education at the architectural college appears to be equally abysmal with two assistant professors posts and two lecturers posts lying vacant. Wannabe painters and artists are also having a tough time as five vacancies of lecturers continue to remain vacant in the Goa Art College. How does the education minister Manohar Parrikar hope to impart quality education without adequate teachers?

IFFI CONSULTANCY FEES
AND A FEW observations on how much money the bhaile have made under the guise of advising the Goa government on IFFI-related projects. So far an amount of Rs.1.35 crores has been paid to various consultants with the cream going to Uttam Jain who has been paid a whopping Rs.91 lakhs. It is not clear if Uttam Jain was paid Rs.91 lakhs for consultancy for putting up the temporarily permanent film festival complex at the Campal football stadium. Since the plan to locate the main festival complex at the football stadium has now been abandoned will the money be recovered from Uttam Jain? Not likely. On the contrary, the Goa government is all set to shower more goodies on Uttamji. The Bombay architectural firm has apparently been given the contract for restoration and upgradation of the existing Kala Academy which is intended to be the main festival venue. Let us take a closer look at what Uttam Jain will make. M/s. Uttam Jain will get Rs.5.25 lakhs for project planning and preparation. They will get six percent of the costs of the work estimated to be around Rs.24 crores for supervising theimplementation of the project. Which works out to a handsome Rs. Four crores. For monitoring the project implementation they will get an additional fixed sum of Rs.6.5 lakhs every month for the next four months. And not just that. Uttam Jain and Co. will get a cut on all the equipment supplied. Uttam Jain will get two percent of the invoice value for window air conditioners, cine projectors, lifts and escalators and even the signs put up for the international film festival.

Besides Uttam Jain, the other main beneficiaries will be Frischmann Prabhu Pvt.Ltd. who has already collected Rs.11.28 lakhs for consultancy services so far. Curiously, two separate sets of consultants have been appointed for upgradation of the existing GMC structure. Vikas Dilawari has been paid a consultancy fee of Rs.5.5 lakhs for advising on restoration and adaptive use of the old GMC complex. In addition Frisch-mann Prabhu has or will be paid Rs.28 lakhs for re-development of the old GMC complex. Not being architects, we do not know the difference between restorative use and re-development. And contrary to the claims of all the young architects, their concern for the beautification of Panjim city is not purely born of a burning desire to contribute to the civic cause. The young architects collective SIDDHA which includes Raya Shanwhalkar and Rita Mody Joshi have made quite a packet. On consultancy and architectural services alone they have collected a whopping Rs.18.5 lakhs of which Rs. Four lakhs has gone to Raya Sanwhalkar and Rs.7.5 lakhs to architect Bryan D’Silva. Incidentally, amongst the other beneficiaries of IFFI is the National Institute of Oceanography which has been paid Rs.10.5 lakhs for chamchagiri masquerading as an environmental assessment study.

CHINTAN BAITHAK
AND A FEW stray observations on the BJP chintan baithak being held at the International Centre over the weekend. The wheel in a sense has come full circle. The BJP Hindutva line which led to its rout in the Parliamentary elections was first formulated at a meeting of the BJP National Executive held in Goa at the Marriott Hotel five years ago. It was at this meeting that the hardliners, led by L.K. Advani, prevailed. And the demand for the resignation of Narendra Modi was rejected. Despite threats from Chandrababu Naidu and the Telugu Desam that they would withdraw support to the then National Alliance government if Narendra Modi was not sacked. The BJP returns to Goa to the International Centre this time instead of the Marriott presumably because since the party is not in power at the Centre this time, it cannot afford five-star or seven-star luxury for its exercise in introspection. And we have no doubt that at the chintan baithak the hawks and hardliners, who have been claiming that the BJP lost the election because they diluted the hard-line Hindutva stance, will prevail again.

Amongst the dignitaries attending the chintan baithak will be Narendra Modi who, more than anyone else, contributed to the BJP’s rout in the Parliamentary elections. And no doubt our own Narendra Modi, Manohar Parrikar, will boast about his little contribution to saffronising Goa. But a matter of greater concern to Goans in Goa is the fact that, leave alone ordinary citizens, even life members of the International Centre have been barred from going anywhere near the Centre over the weekend. We are not surprised that the International Centre has been handed over the Sangh Parivar for three days. It is of course a coincidence that Pratapsing Raoji Rane, a closet chaddiwallah, is the Chairman of the Board of the International Centre.

And a last stray thought for yet another Sunday. The Chief Minister has a weird sense of humour. While admitting that the number of chain snatching incidents in Goa has registered a sharp rise, Manohar Parrikar attributed it to the fact that the quality of motorbikes have improved.

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