GCCI EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CALLS on CM

Trailblazer: The life and Times of Vasantrao Dempo’: GCCI President Ralph De Sousa ,Vice- Presidents Shrinivas Dempo, Pratima Dhond, Hon Treasurer Chandrakant Gawas ,Managing Committee member Manoj Patil and Director General Kishore Shah met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant at the Ministerial Block, Secretariat ,Porvorim on August 5 2021. Shrinivas Dempo along with a bouquet and the GCCI’s 113th AGM report, also presented the CM with a copy ofTrailblazer: The Life and Times of Vasantrao Dempo.’ Pratima Dhond presented the flagship magazine of the chamber, `GCCI Bulletin.’ GCCI President Ralph shared with the CM the various initiatives, activities, representations from Chamber which play an active role in the welfare based development of the State. Chief Minister Sawant in turn appreciated the Chambers contribution and welcomed the suggestion of contributing through its Economics & Research cell and its 15 sub-committees to value add and augment the State government’s initiatives. It was agreed all around that sound research, data analytics and indepth study, is the key to traction and success and GCCI can for sure contribute the same in a significant way.

GOA BHUMIPUTRA           

The Supreme Court has expressed that all illegal constructions carried out are as serious as murder and rape and there is no way they may be  regularized. Henceforth, a sincere public cannot tolerate the attitude of builders. We have witnessed tremendous irregularities going on in Goa in recent years. Even the construction coming up near St Cajetan church at Old Goa at Heritage Site has not been spared.

Builders and owners in search of convenience with the authorities are setting a bad example to others and Goa faces impending disaster. Especially, with such a bill as the Goa Bhumipitra Adhikaran Bill introduced and passed recently on the floor of Legislative Assembly, awaiting governor RS Sreedharan Pillai’s assent – who must act as per the rules in this regard. Already memorandums have been submitted for his consideration by different concerned parties in Goa.

If passed this bill will allow encroachment by slum dwellers for more than 30 years legal and declare them bhumiputra, meaning sons of the soil, and they may get ownership of 250 sq mts of land. While we, the original Goans who are residing fewer years, will be considered in a lower position as (fracas) than the slum dwellers! Hopefully, such a situation doesn’t arise. 

–Stephen Dias, Dona Paula                                

BOOST RTI ACT!

CONSEQUENT to decades of hectic lobbying, the efforts of civil society paid off with the much needed Right to Information Act in place and bearing fruit on June 15, 2005 when the President of India gave assent to the Right to Information Act, 2005. But over the last 16 years the greater challenge has been actual implementation of the Act.

Unless the RTI Act is further strengthened good governance, transparency in administration and zero tolerance for corruption will never be a reality.

The RTI Act has been hailed as a hallmark of democracy. It aims at making the government transparent and accountable. Effective use of it would pave the path of good governance. The act is a powerful tool to expose corruption in high places in the government.

The RTI is derived from our fundamental right of expression under Article 19. If we do not have information on how our government and public institutions function, we cannot express any informed opinion on government doings. This has been reiterated by various Supreme Court judgments since 1977.

Yet some bureaucrats continue to conceal instead of revealing information for the larger public good of governance. They were not accustomed to providing information freely. The RTI Act changed all this and good bureaucrats with nothing to hide and fear welcomed the change for the bettermednt of Goa.

However, the bad apple bureaucrats who are either corrupt, or simply have a non-cooperative attitude, are now compelled to fall in line with the RTI Act. After many RTI Act exposures now our politicians are attempting modify the act to help them escape from its ambit. Any attempts to dilute the RTI Act must be vehemently opposed. In fact, there is need to reinforce this transparency law act which focuses on political parties.

We are all part of society and if something is wrogn we must all take responsibility. A lot of information was earlier suppressed by the government, allowing room for corruption. The RTI Act may be used by every individual to bring about a change. A properly worded RTI application with a Rs10 stamp on it is all it takes. The RTI is a key component in the attainment of economic, social and political rights of an individual as well as community at large. The RTI gives an ordinary person a feeling of participation.

The thousands of RTI applications by concerned citizens if taken seriously can usher in major changes for the larger good of Goa. This would be true liberation. The RTI movement should spread to every village so that the flaws in governance may be highlighted and good triumphs over good.

The RTI Act is a tool of power in the hands of the common people and it is very simple and user- friendly. It is not enough to be only a desh premi, we all need to be RTI premi too. Even if RTI activists are sometimes gunned down the spirit of the RTI and what it hopes to achieve must never die.

The 37th President of the United States of America Richard Nixon had in 1972 very rightly said, “When information which properly belongs to the public is systematically withheld by those in power, the people soon become ignorant of their own affairs, distrustful of those who manage them, and — eventually — incapable of determining their own destinies.”

–Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar

TEACH 40 A LESSON!

DR PRAMOD SAWANT-led BJP government  passed the Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini Bill, 2021 in the just concluded assembly session, with the sole intention of officially converting all neighboring migrant settlers into permanent Goans, and finally turn the small state into another Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, if not Uttar Pradesh, to permanently destroy Goa’s identity. And all this to augment vote bank politics!

The bill says any person living in Goa for 30 years in any property, including rented propery, will be a bhumiputra under the new Bhumiputra Adhikarini Act. It also says that if a person has constructed a structure on anyone’s property, before April 1, 2019, then he/she/they automatically get ownership of the property up to 250 sq mts. This is the Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini Act which overrides rend agreement contracts if any.

It means a migrant who has stayed anywhere in Goa for 30 years, can claim ownership of the property he was staying on rent even for few days or months, as on April 1, 2019, under this Bhumiputra Act.

Of course, political party leaders of the Congress and Maharashtra Gomantak Party, after sensing the mood of Goans, are now seen making a big noise about such a bill. Why didn’t they raise voice earlier? Perhaps they were all inwardly supporting the bill and due to which had deliberately walked out of assembly to give full backing to the BJP government to pass the controversial bill in the Goa assembly? 

Goans need to wake up to teach all our 40 elected politicians a lesson in the next assembly elections. All niz Goenkar must vote for their own survival in Goa. Utt Nidhlelea Goenkara Ani Jagrut Zaa… Viva Goa, Viva Goenkaar!

–Jerry Fernandes, Saligao                             

BENAULIM RAPE

THE National Confederation for Human Rights, Goa (NCHRO-Goa) Unit, condemns the recent incident of the rape of the two young teenagers  at Benaulim beach. An innocent weekend outing turned out to be a tragedy for the teenagers aged 16 and 14 years. The men posed as police staff to commit the crime and any investigation must take up this aspect too.

We also take note of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s callous disregard for better policing and instead holding parents responsible instead of the worsening law and order in Goa. There is some consolation that the assailants were quickly detained by the Colva police, under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Goa Children’s Act, for  rape and other offenses under the IPC.

But five days after the incident further steps in line with POCSO, GCA, and IPC should have been taken by now, but nothing has happened and the delay raises our concern. The CM’s lecturing of parents to enforce discipline on their children has enraged all Goans. The CM’s first priority should be to check these men in uniform who misbehave with women and punish them. Women too have rights.

We say to the CM, Physician, heal yourself!   Rapes, assaults, thefts, murders and all manner of crimes are happening with alarming frequency in Goa and the CM who is also the Home Minister is asking audaciously, Why citizens should blame the police? Why not? Law and order is crumbling in Goa. The people need answers from the CM with swift, firm action being seen by all.

The State’s law and order machinery must protect the public first! If the Colva police had been alert and agile this entire sorry incident could have been prevented from happening. 

  –Iftiyaz Sayed, General Secretary, NCHRO-Goa Unit