DISQUALIFICATION: The disqualification petition hearing of then Congress MLAs and the two MGP MLAs who merged with the BJP is coming up on November 2, 2020 before the Supreme Court.

BY RAJAN NARAYAN

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the pot called the kettle black. For a Saturday following the week when hotels, restaurants and bars were open but religious places were yet to open. For a Saturday following the week when there were public protests against setting up power transmission towers and high voltage lines through the Mollem Forest Reserve Sanctuary. For a Saturday following the week when we in Goa witnessed the longest spell of rainfall in several years. For a Saturday following the week when the Corporation of the City of Panjim or Panaji banned Narkasura processions and fireworks, it has capped the height of Narkasura effigies at eight feet only.

GHAR GHAR PIYASA

AND a few stray thoughts on the pot calling the kettle black. Facing ridicule over his claims of ‘ghar ghar mai pani’ and the success of the State in bringing down Covid-19, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant decided to hit back. During his speech at a Vigilance Awareness Week program held at the secretariat Pramod Sawant blamed the babu lok for the failure of several government schemes. He accused government staff of harassing the common man and failing to fulfill their basic needs.
The CM lamented that while outsiders get their work done very easily, Goans are harassed by officials at every level. “Even after 70 years post-Independence Goans are still deprived of basic necessities of toilet, electricity and water.” The CM claimed that this was due to ineffective implementation of government schemes by the bureaucracy. Apparently, when the chief minister tried checking out the websites of various departments, he found that 80% of the websites of the 150 odd government departments not working. Even the website of the Department of Information which is supposed to communicate to the media the achievements of various government departments was not working. Pramod Sawant slammed government officials for dereliction of duty. He said, “Some government staffers are not even coming to the office and heads of department don’t even bother to ask them. He threatened to name the heads of concerned departments.
The ground reality is that Pramod Sawant has no control over his Cabinet colleagues. Each of them from Minister of Tourism Manohar Babu Azgaonkar to the Minister for Waste Management Michael Lobo are pulling in different directions. To give an example, the CM does not decide where the new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) should have its campus. This despite a five year delay in deciding where the new campus should be! In the meanwhile the first batches of IIT student from the Goa IIT are operating from the Goa Engineering College Campus at Farmagudi, Ponda and have already passed out. The original proposal was that the permanent campus of the Goa IIT should be at Sattari taluka, on the basis of promises made by late the late chief minister, Manohar Parrikar. However, there has been opposition from the villagers of Guleli because they say the site selected is a thickly forested area and should not be disturbed.

MOLLEM DISTRUCTION

Power Minister Nilesh Cabral has offered land in his Curchoren constituency for the IIT. Many people are questioning the need for setting up so many high profile education institutions in Goa. We already have the government financed-Goa Engineering College which was the only institution for three decades. But in the last few years half-a- dozen engineering colleges have come up.
The National Institute of Indian Technology (NIIT) has already come up in Cuncolim. The Birla Institute of Technology (BIITs), the Goa campus of BITs Pilani came up because Zuari had been given excess land by the Pratapsingh Rane government and they were afraid it would be taken back if they did not put it to some good use. BITS is considered on par with the IITs, particularly after brand IIT has been devalued by starting a dozen new IITs all over the country. There was a time when there were only five IITs in Mumbai, Kolkatta, Kanpur, Chennai and New Delhi.
In addition to the IIT and NIIT the Pillar Society set up an engineering college in Verna in Goa near Mount Carmel College. Don Bosco has set up an engineering design college in Assagao. Health Minister Vishwajit Rane is planning to convert the South Goa District hospital into a private medical college in collaboration with Manipal Hospital. The irony is that nobody from outside Goa wants to send their children to the technology colleges of Goa. This is because they are afraid that they children will end up as drug addicts andor bevda. Very few Goans qualify for entry into the hi-tech engineering colleges in Goa.

DISQUALIFICATION PETITION

AND a few stray thoughts on the Supreme Court hearing on the delay by Goa Speaker Rajesh Patnekar, in giving a decision on the disqualification petitions pending before it. As far back as June last year the Goa Forward and the MGP or at least their leaders withdrew support to the BJP government. The claim of Vijai Sardesai and Sudhin Dhavalikar was that their support was not to the BJP but personally to former chief minister Manohar Parrikar.
It may be recalled that in the last assembly election held in 2017 and much to the surprise of the BJP, the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 17 seats in the 40 member assembly. Even before the election there was an understanding that the Goa Forward party led by Vijai Sardesai would join the Congress party. Similarly, the Independents also offered support to the Congress. Unfortunately for the Congress Nitin Gadkari in a midnight strike managed to secure the support of Sudhin Dhavalikar of the MGP with three seats in the assembly, taking the BJP tally up from 13 to 16. In the meanwhile the Congress committee which included senior citizens like Cleofat Coutinho, the lawyer, were having talks on allocation of portfolios to the three Goa Forward MLAs who had won the elections.
Vijai Sardesai has insisted that his support to the Congress was conditional to Digambar Kamat becoming the chief minister with himself as deputy chief minister. Unfortunately, the then Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief Luzinho Faleiro was unwilling to give up his claim to the chief minister’s kodel. Luzinho who was close to Rahul Gandhi had the support of the senior Congress high command observer Digvijay Singh. Luzinho Falerio played his cards very cleverly and raised the issue of the BJP at the Centre in arresting Digambar Kamat on the charge of his violating mining concession rules. By the time committee could finish its discussion we got a message from VIjai Sardesai that he had already joined the BJP and was in the Raj Bhavan staking his claim to form a BJP government.
To everyone’s surprise Pramod Sawant of Sanquelim who was close to Manohar Parrikar was appointed the chief minister. This led to the sacking of Vijai Sardesai and Sudhin Dhavalikar. Since the BJP lost its majority with the exit of Vijai and Sudhin it split both the parties. As many as ten members of the 17-member Congress party quit and joined the BJP led by Babu Kavalekar who was appointed deputy chief minister.
Similarly two of the three members of the MGP-led by Sudhin Dhavalikar merged with the BJP. Under the Anti- Defection Act if 2/3rds of the members of any legislative party defect it is called a split and not defection. However, the parties have to take the permission of the organizational wing of the party. There cannot be a split in the Congress Legislative party without a split in the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee. Both the president of the GPCC and the president of the MGP Deepak Dhavalikar filed a disqualification petition against the then Congress MLA and the two MGP MLAs.
The speaker kept delaying a hearing on the petition with the ideal excuse of the Covid-19 lockdowns. However, since the BJP could not avoid holding the budget session of the assembly they could not any longer used Covid-19 as an excuse for delaying the hearing on the disqualification. Congress President Girish Chodankar and MGP head, Deepak Dhavalikar, moved Supreme Court. To the good fortune of the BJP the courts have yet to function on a regular basis because of Covid-19. There are hearings on urgent matters and that to virtually and not physically. Finally, after many postponements the date for hearing of the disqualification has been fixed for November 2, 2020. If the SC disqualifies the ten BJP MLAs and the two MGP MLAs the strength of the BJP will be reduced from the present 27 to 15 including the Independents.

PRINT MEDIA

AND a few stray thoughts on print media in Goa virtually crumbling. Right from the Covid-19 lockdowns many newspapers in Goa have drastically reduced their print order. The TOI which used to print 25,000 copies is now printing 5,000 copies. Due to Covid-19 guidelines and lack of advertising several Times staffers were sacked and others asked to come in on alternate days. Every newspaper has witnessed sharp cuts in salaries for staffers. The Herald has been asking many employees to not only stay at home and work but also denying them payment for any work done from home!
Marathi papers like the Gomantak are equally affected but the English sister publication Gomantak Times has shut down. The chief reporter of the Gomantak Times has been lucky enough to find a job with Prime TV but at a lower salary. The favorite employee of the Timblo proprietors, Sonia Kunkolienkar, who headed the Prudent organization as general manager has been sacked. Earlier, Sandesh Prabhudesai, who edited online Goa 365 was told to leave.
The latest victim in media massacres has been Raju who edited the Marathi Lokmat which has also closed down. Even we in Goan Observer have suspended the print edition for some temporarily. There are two major reasons for the sharp fall in print media publications, one is Covid-19 when people decided not to have the newspapers delivered to their homes. Big gated colonies like Models Millennium would not permit delivery boys into the complex out of fear that newspapers and delivery boys may be infected by the contagion. It did not occur to the worthies that it can also be the other way round and the watchmen of the gated colonies who live in slums may also be infected by Covid-19 residents where they work. Reportedly, tenants of film magnate BC Chopra who live in one of the prestigious gated colonies in Caranzalen contacted the infection and the concerned flat was sealed for several weeks. All service providers of the gated colony feared servicing the affected block and residents had to deal with their own garbage disposals and take appropriate action to protect themselves from being infected.
The other factor affecting print media is the increase in GST on newsprint and consequently a shortage of newsprint, because of the ban on transport between Goa and Karnataka where the Ballarpur newsprint factory West Coast Paper Mills is located. Printers who import newsprint suffered because international flights were shut down during lockdowns.
In Goa most papers relied on the casinos and hotels for advertising for minimal survival. The casinos are now expected to open on November 1, 2020. Though the luxury five-star hotels are back they are just humming along and working much below capacity. The truth is newspapers are still not earning enough income to pay bills, salaries and meet other expenses due to the lockdown period and its wake nowadays.

nepali’s not back staff missing

AND a few stray thought on casinos still remaining closed. Casinos are being replaced in Goa by Indian Premiere League betting. The IPL is taking place not in India but in the Gulf. But betting of course can take place from anywhere in the world. A lot of gamblers and their agents come to Goa as tourists. They set up the gambling infrastructure which comprises setting up multiple television set enclosures and dozens of smartphones. During the last one week there have been more than a dozen cases of IPL gambling in Goa. We have been getting emails from betting organizations on whether we would accept advertisements for betting on sports events. Unfortunately betting on any sports events is banned in India. This despite the fact that a lot of illegal gambling goes on. Besides matka the largest gambling is done on bull fights. Bull fights were officially banned a long time ago but they continue openly in front of the eyes of police in Agasaim and Benaulim.

prelonged rains

AND a last stray thought on the longest spell of prolonged rains in Goa. Normally, the monsoon rains arrive by the second week of June and depart in September. In fact, the fishing ban to protect fish breeding is declared from June 1 to July 31. However, this year there have been very heavy rains which made fishing impossible even after the ban period. The extraordinary heavy showers have affected standing paddy crop ready for harvesting. The excess rain has also affected the cashew harvest. Houses and cars have been damaged by falling trees. Roads are in a state of heavy and dangerous disrepair. Not to mention that the prolonged monsoons have taken a toll on power line breakdowns and other infrastructure.