AUCTION: In the budget presented on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has announced the setting up of a mining corporation to auction mining leases, including the leases presently held by the 96 private owners.

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced the setting up a mining corporation to auction leases. For a Saturday following the week when though the BJP swept the civic elections Chief Minister Pramod Sawant not only lost his ward but the Sakhali municipal council. For a Saturday following the week when the Union home ministry decided that from April 1, all those above the age of 45 will be entitled to Covid-19 vaccines. For a Saturday following the week when there were claims that there was extensive match fixing in football matches held in Goa. For a Saturday following the week when the rot in the Mumbai police took an even more dramatic term.
AND a few stray thoughts on the last budget before the 2022 assembly elections. Obviously, the budget makes an effort to make everyone happy. The biggest beneficiaries are the construction industry which has been extended 30% cut in infrastructure tax! On the contrary, given the fact that green Goa is turning into a khaki concrete jungle, the infrastructure tax should have increased by 200%. We need to discourage people from Mumbai and the rest of the over-stressed industrial cities of India to buy second homes in Goa as holiday homes or to escape from covid-19!
The tourism industry has been offered marginal relief by way of an interest subsidy on loans for the 2,000 non-star hotels run by the estimated 1,000 tour and travel operators.
The biggest allotment is for the health sector which will get Rs1,719 crore, an increase of almost 20% over last year’s budget. This will presumably go towards the construction of some more super-speciality blocks in the GMC which will be promptly handed over to the private sector by Health Minister Vishwajit Rane to run and manage.
To keep Atanasio Babush Monserrate happy and to make sure that he does not quit the BJP and return to the Congress before the next assembly elections, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s government has decided to regularise all illegal houses in rural and urban areas.
Our schools are going to become hi-tech with an allocation of Rs3,000 crore to enable them to teach robotics and coding to inculcate mathematical and logical attitudes. This will probably mean mass distribution of smart phones which will be used for downloading porn and playing games by the students. Perhaps the most important decision taken in Pramod Sawant’s budget, which started five hours late at around 7pm instead of the 2.30pm scheduled, is the announcement of the formation of a mining corporation. With the Supreme Court adamant that it will not permit the renewal of the expired iron ore leases, the government has finally decided to set up a State-owned mining corporation. The present lease holders will have to participate in the auction to buy back their own leases!
This is undoubtedly a victory for Claude Alvares of the Goa Foundation which has been demanding that the government should form a mining corporation to resume extraction and export of iron ore. The underlining motive behind forming the mining corporation is to secure the votes of over three lakh people affected by the suspension of mining.
If late chief minister, Manohar Parrikar, was obsessed with bridges, Pramod Sawant is passionate about constructions. He is also the finance minister and Finance Minister Sawant has announced the construction of a monster multi-storeyed building at Patto to accommodate all government offices.
Big Boss, Mac Vaz will be happy as the CM has decided that the new feni policy will be notified following the fact that it has secured geographical index for the Goan liquor. What this means is that only the feni made in Goa can be considered genuine feni just as only the scotch made in Scotland is considered genuine scotch. The CM is also considering applying for geographical index for Goa’s indigenous goods like the kunbi saree, mancurad, bebinca, the brinjals of Taleigao brinjal, not to forget the “sath shiro bhendi” or ladies finger.
Consistent with the BJP philosophy of treating as VIP animals, Rs10 crore have been allotted for setting up more gaushala under the Stray Cattle Management
Scheme. The CM has also promised financial assistant to needy senior citizens, single women and persons suffering mental illness. It is also proposes to increase the allowance to widows from Rs2,000 to Rs 2,500. Devotee Hindu women can now go on their tirth yatra to visit Ram Mandir under the Mukhiyamantri Devdarshan scheme.
Sawant has not forgotten the traditional occupation in Goa and has provided Rs5 crore to support “charis” (metal workers), salt pan workers, potters, cobblers and motor cycle pilots. He unfortunately forgot the barberia of Mala. The CM has not left out any other section of these community occupations in his vote-gathering budget. effort the community left in his vote gathering budget. The only question left is from where is he going to get the money to implement all the goodwill in principle money he has committed in his budget.
Which is why perhaps he is refusing to impose curbs on tourism promotion full swing ahead, in the hope that the casinos and tourism will provide him funds for implementing the schemes; it will have to be done in a hurry because he has only till the end-2021 to implement the schemes. The code of conduct will come into force by January or February 2022.

LOSES SAKHALI

AND a few stray thoughts on Chief Minister Pramod Sawant not even being able to get his candidate elected from the ward in which he stays in Sakhali. The BJP also lost the Sakhali municipal council even though it swept all the other civic bodies with the exception of Cuncolim. The credibility of the chief minister has fallen to a new low. There are now doubts on whether he will be able to lead the party to victory in the assembly elections coming up early next year.
Increasingly it appears that Pramod Sawant does not have a popular base even in his own constituency, leave alone the whole of Goa. It is generally presumed that he got elected to the assembly primarily due to the efforts of the Valpoi MLA and health Minister Viswajit Rane. Upon the death of the late Manohar Parrikar two years ago, the party was desperately looking for a successor.
Unfortunately for the BJP the late Manohar Parrikar failed to build a second line of leadership to take over in case something happens to him. Even former chief minister, Laxmikant Parsekar, who held the fort when Parrikar moved to Delhi to take up the defence portfolio, was a better chief minister than Pramod Sawant.
There are more Congress leaders in the BJP Legislative party than committed BJP workers. Some of the senior BJP leaders like Rajendra Arlekar have been side-lined. Pramod Sawant became chief minister by default as he was considered the most obedient of them all! He could be relied upon to follow the orders of the BJP High Command. Parrikar would never have permitted the double tracking of the South Western Railway for the benefit of the Adani group. Now it is fait accompli with the Goa cabinet passing the project and the diversion of land required for it. Parrikar would also have opposed the expansion of the MPT and the nationalisation of rivers. Karnataka has taken advantage of a spineless CM of Goa to divert the waters of the river Mhadei.
INDEED, the representatives of Goa were manhandled when they went on a joint inspection ordered by the Supreme Court. We understand that at a meeting held on the first day of the assembly on Tuesday, the names of Utpal Parrikar and Vishwajit Rane, were proposed to head the government if the BJP returns to power in the assembly elections scheduled for March 2022.

VACCINE SHOTS

AND a few stray thoughts on the Centre deciding to extend the benefit of vaccination to all Indians above the age of 45. This would mean that as many as 34 crore IndianS will be entitled to take the covid-19 vaccine shot. This may benefit the Serum Institute of India which makes Covishield and Biotech which makes Covaxin.
Presumably, the decision to extend the benefit of vaccination to all those above 45 is because of the threat of the second wave of covid-19 which has touched the 133 day peak of 47,281 fresh cases in India. India now ranks third among the countries in the world which is experiencing the deadly second wave which kills almost instantly.
This is dramatized by the fact that on Tuesday, March 23, India witnessed 276 deaths — the highest one day covid-19 toll to date this current year. The speed with which the active cases are doubling has reduced from 504 days during the first phase to just 202 days in the second wave. The majority of the cases are coming from Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab, which account for 75% of the total cases. Maharashtra accounts for 63.7% of the total of 3.5 lakh active cases across the country.
Taking into consideration Goa’s population of 18 to 20 lakh, the fact that the number of active cases is close to 1,500 and over 822 deaths in the current year, requires urgent action by the CM. While neighbouring states have imposed Sunday curfews and banned visitors from outside the State without covid-19 negative certificate, Goa is seen as rolling out the red carpet for super spreaders.
Goa is also not enforcing Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to limit social gatherings (relaxed to 200). Health Minister Vishwajit Rane wanted to impose curbs on tourists entering Goa. But the CM over ruled him saying that while the rules of covid-19 will be enforced, there will be no restriction on entries into Goa. This is possibly because tourism is the only major source of revenue left!
Forget about senior citizens and those between 45 and 60 who have other health complications, even frontline health workers are reluctant to take a covid-19 vaccine. Those entitled to priority vaccinations as part of the health force are allopathic doctors, nurses/midwifes/ pharmacists/dentists and AYUSH homeopathic doctors. The actual percentage of front line health workers who have taken both the doses of vaccine is less than 10% of those eligible for it.
In the case of senior citizens and the 45 to 60 age group the percentage is less than 5%. This is probably sparked by reports that after taking both doses of Astrazeneca an MBBS doctor died in Kerala. Much of Europe has rejected Covidhield as it offers no protection to those infected by the South African coronavirus variant of Covid-19.

MATCH-FIXING

AND a few stray thoughts on persistent allegations of match-fixing in football in Goa. The integrity partners of the Goa Football Association genius sports, which keeps track of suspicious matches has expressed doubts that as many as six of the matches of the Goa Football professional league may have been fixed. This report of suspicious betting patterns comes a year after GFA was alerted by another betting watchdog, London-based sport trader. They have expressed their doubts about the fairness of the six games played between October 16, 2019 and November 19. 2019.
Among the matches that are suspected to have been fixed is the recent match between Salgaocar FC and Churchill which the former won by one goal. For the benefit of those who may not be aware of the huge amounts involved in match-fixing both in cricket and football, it may be pointed out that unscrupulous professional bookies bribe players including goal keepers to allow the rival team to win. The biggest betting scam in the last two decades was the discovery that leading Indian and Australian player were accepting huge bribes to fix matches.
For instance, even present 2020 series against England raises doubt about possible match fixing. In the latest 1-day match against England in Pune totally unknown player Krunal Pandiya scored 58 runs. The other debutant who performed unexpectedly well was Prasad Krishna who took four wickets. Both this players were taking part for the first time in the football match.
In the case of football the parallels would be players like Messi failing to score from a penalty shot. The irony is that betting of any kind in sports is totally banned in India. Though betting is permitted in the UK it is strictly monitored to ensure that the victory was not a result of bribing of teams of players. Interestingly, Goa seems to be a favourite venue for those who want to fix matches and accept bets on the outcome.

completed 50 years

AND a last few stray thoughts on Pratap Singh Raoji Rane completing 50 years as an MLA and legislator. Confirming rumours that the father, like son Vishwajit may join the BJP, even Narendra Modi has sent a message of congratulation to the senior Rane for his passion for public service.
Pratap Singh Raoji Rane was elected to the assembly for the first time in 1971 and was made the revenue minister in the Sashikala Kakodkar ministry. He misused his position as revenue minister to exempt Satari taluka, which the Ranes have been controlling for hundreds of years, from the Tenancy & Munkar Act.
Rane was the most arrogant of chief ministers that Goa has witnessed. He was also “joru ka gulam” as dramatized by the following incident. When I came to Goa in 1983 the All India Hotel Federation had its annual meeting in the State of Goa. Tourism was than new to Goa and the music choir of the Kala Academy was asked to present an performance at the inaugural ceremony. The Kala Academy was then headed by the late Damu Kenkre, a very reputed Goan artist. Damu had prepared an elaborate dance sequence for the event. Vijayadevi Rane, who had come to see the rehearsal, insisted that the girls should wear green saree with saffron blouse to match the country’s national flag.
Damu Kenkre strongly objected as he was an uncompromising artist. Damu Kenkre was sacked by senior Rane for refusing to comply with Vijaya Devi’s order, saying, “Does not my wife even have the right to decide on the costumes?” I wrote an anchor report on the front page titled “How the colour of a saree shattered a dream.”
A few days later at the funeral of the late VM Salgaocar senior, Rane turned to my then publisher and owner of OHeraldo, AC Fernandes, and summoned him to his office. When we went to his office the next day he asked AC Fernandes to sack me for writing about his wife! The late AC Fernandes who unlike his son was more interested in prestige than money, told Pratap Singh Raoji Rane that it was he AC Fernandes who is paying my salary and he will decide whom he should sack.
When Pratap Singh Raoji Rane’s government was toppled because of a revolt by the then speaker Dr Barbosa and he had leave the official resident, in a fit of fury Vijayadevi broke all the flower pots in the CM’s official residence.