SKILLING: With the Dabolim airport being expanded and the new Mopa airport scheduled to start next year, Goa will need thousands of aircraft maintenance and servicing mechanics, not to mention the ground handling staff ranging from glamorous air-hostesses to ticketing staff to even specialised drivers for loading and unloading cargo from the aircraft.

By Rajan Narayan

Goans are not beggars. They do not need doles. The huge amounts sought to be distributed to women by various political parties should go towards creating skills so that Goans can be self-dependent. Skills ranging from aircraft maintenance and electric vehicle maintenance, to digital empowerment to home nursing to a range of skills such as dental technicians, radiology assistants and mobile and internet maintenance personnel. Let us create money, not squander the money we cannot afford. Let us not add to the loan of `23,000 crore that Goans are already burdened with.

IT all started with the late former Defence Minister and Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar, who introduced the Griha Adhaar scheme to compensate women for the increase in inflation. Under the scheme, every woman per household would be given a dole of 1,000 -- which was later increased by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant to1,500 per month. Then came the elections and the Aam Aadmi party’s Arvind Kejriwal promised that if his party came to power, he would increase the monthly dole by another 1,000 which meant that all women would get2,500.
Mamta Banarjee, of course, had to do one better than all of them. She straight away offered Rs5,000 per woman in each household which totals up to Rs60,000 per year. Interestingly, Mamta-didi’s Trinamool Congress has not waited till they have won the elections and formed the government before giving women Griha Laxmi cards. In fact, there is a hologram in all daily newspapers to download to excess your Griha Laxmi card immediately. Since the TMC does not represent the government and this seems to be part of its election campaign strategy, it amounts to bribing woman voters. We only hope the Election Commission will take note of this blatant attempt at bribing voters.
Goans are not queuing up to collect money either from the BJP government or the Aam Admi party (AAP) which has only promised an additional thousand rupees, or the TMC which has already started issuing is Griha Laxmi Card. We do not know if this scheme is being financed by the West Bengal government or the IPAC headed by its political strategist Prashant Kishore. The dole of 5,000 per month to 3.5 lakh estimated households in Goa will cost the TMC175 crore per month. This will add up to 2,100 crore per year or 6-8 % of the total Goa budget. The total loans of the Goa government as of now stands at23,000 crore. The Goa government certainly cannot afford to pay `5,000 per month to 3.5 lakh households.

UNBEARABLE BURDEN?
WILL the Trinamool Congress and Mamatadidi or Prashant Kishore continue to pay the `5,000 dole if they fail to win the elections and form the government in Goa? Or are they making promises which will impose an unbearable burden on the Goa government?
Goans are not beggars. When the Griha Adhaar scheme was first introduced by the late Manohar Parrikar, it was subsequently found that a large amount of it had been misappropriated. Not surprisingly, many of the beneficiaries were government servants entrusted with implementing the scheme. The TMC and AAP are arguing that there is no scope for corruption as under the Griha Laxmi Card scheme, the whole process of applying and remitting the money will be done digitally. By now, the TMC should know that it is much easier to commit frauds digitally. The women entitled to the Griha Laxmi card will be poor aging women who are presumably the head of the household. The probability of them being digitally literate is very high. The TMC has made cheating even easier!
According to the TMC, all you have to do is to scan the hologram in the daily newspapers, enter your mobile phone number and provide the other details. The TMC should be aware that anybody can acquire a mobile phone number under a fake Adhaar card facilitated by politicians and loot the TMC or the Goa government, whichever party forms the government.

NO DOLES, NO ALMS!
WE have always been against doles. We don’t want your alms. The only beggars in Goa are people from outside the State. Never in the history of Goa have we had native Goans begging for a hand out. Goans are a self-respecting people. We want to earn our living. Even if we have to pay 20-30 lakh to get a government job. Indeed, Babush Monserrate has alleged that the PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar has collected30 lakhs each from the 300 engineers that he recruited in a Rs70 crore scam.
We do not know how much Health Minister Vishwajit Rane made from recruiting public relation officers and assistant attendants in the Goa Medical College & Hospital and the Health Services. Class IV jobs in the GMC and Health Services are exclusively reserved for the residents of Valpoi and Poriem constituencies represented by Health Minister Vishwajit Rane and former Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Raoji Rane, respectively.
Right from the time I came to Goa in 1983, I have been aware that Goans are wanting, willing and waiting to pay agents of ministers and MLAs to get a government job. I was shocked when a friend of my maid servant from the Aivao village which is just below the road leading to the Governor’s residence Cabo Raj Nivas, came to me asking for a discount. She had been asked for 10 lakh for a job of a lower division clerk (LDC) in the Kala Academy, but she could raise only Rs5lakh. She wanted me to speak to the director to give a discount of5 lakh. My private security officers, whom I got after being beaten up by Dayanand Narvekar’s goons, borrowed money from their provident fund or private money lenders, to buy themselves jobs in the police force.

ARE GOANS BEGGARS?
GOANS are not beggars. Do not insult them by offering them doles. Instead empower them. The world has changed. It has become a digital world. There are no schools to go to. You do your learning on your smart phone. There are no offices to go to as you are expected to work from home, which means that if you do not have a computer or a smart phone and most importantly, internet connectivity, you will not get a job even if you are willing to pay for it. In any case, private employers do not expect a bribe for a job. Unlike the pathetic Goans who aspire for government jobs, who are asking for a quota for merit students among the candidates who are willing to pay bribes!
Do not offer alms to Goans. Empower them by paying the fees for digital training offered by institutions like the Manipal Institute of Computer Education (MICE). For a nominal amount such as Rs5,000-Rs10,000 someone may learn how design pages online; or learn web hosting and even coding. A good coder can develop an app and make billions! You can become an ethical hacker which means helping companies to prevent their competitors from hacking their accounts. There is stiff competition for contracts among computer companies.
The contracts are huge because you can imagine how much the government paid for Adhaar cards for `30 crore Indians. Or paid banks to manage their ATM network. In fact, Dr Samir Kelekar posted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s phone had been hacked and that his password was “Gautam Mukesh” which presumably means his friends Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani. Every candidate can collaborate with MICE to set up a franchise in his/her constituency so that our boys and girls can become computer literate and digital literate and be independent.

DIGITAL learning
DIGITAL education and training is all the more important now because the government has made it possible for you to register your house sale deed digitally. If you want an appointment with the passport officer, you have to send all the relevant details digitally. If you want to renew your car or bike licence, you have to send the details digitally. Even if you want to get married under the Portuguese Civil Code, you can avoid your first visit as you have to send the details digitally. You can pay your electricity, water and telephone bills and even your rental money digitally. If you are dutiful sons and daughters and want to send money to your aged parents, you can do it digitally in half-an-hour or less across continents. In fact, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman wants to convert India into a digital finance economy.
There are other options. The government is discontinuing the use of diesel and petrol cars and bikes. They are insisting that everyone should switch to electric cycles, bikes and cars. This will mean that all the present petrol and diesel mechanics will be out job. Instead of offering doles you can pay the switch over training fees for them to learn how to repair electric vehicles. To repair mobile phones and computers. To repair air-conditioners and washing machines. To restore internet connectivity when the net is down — which is most of the time interrupting even e-learning or e-working. There are a million opportunities for self-employment with the right education and learning.
Let us come to the fair sex. All the political parties are targeting only women. The logic of Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra is that if Rs5,000 is given to the woman who heads a household, it will be used for productively for buying the needs of the household and meeting other expenditure. There is every chance that the husband will grab the money for drinking or the son will use it for drugs. Don’t give women a dole! Instead, empower them to be self-employed.
Caritas, a Christian relief aid organisation, has set an example. It trains young people who are even Std10 failures in home nursing. For a nominal amount of 30,000 per year it offers exhaustive training in home care nursing. They teach young people how to give insulin injections. They teach them how to check blood sugar and blood pressure. They teach them how to do artificial resuscitation. They even teach them how to treat and bandage minor fractures. Such employment is proving to be very lucrative. Taking care of the needs of an aging couple alone at home fetched a trained nursing attendant1,000 for 12 hour duty.
Similarly, if you are a bhumiputra and do not have an extended family or close enough friends, you will need an attendant even in the hospital. When I was in the GMC for a prostrate problem recently, a private agency wanted 1,000 for 12 hours for an illiterate Nepali migrant! So let the parties or the candidates set up a home nursing course in collaboration with Caritas or the nearest hospital or nursing home. The women will not only be self-dependent but help the entire household as they will earn a minimum of30,000 per month.
There are a large number of dentists in Goa. There is a dental college which produces graduates and post- graduates even in maxio-facial surgery, which means that if you break your jaw in an accident or your child has a cleft lip it can be attended to. But there is no college or institution in the State which offers training for dental technicians.
It is the technicians who make various dentures under the guidance of the doctor. There is only one enterprising Goan family which runs the Om Sai Dental Centre in Arpora. The family comprising the mother Mohini Naik, who has a Master’s in dental technology and two sons – Rahul and Rohan, who are also dental technologists working in an advanced lab which facilitates CT scans for the oral cavity, there is even a 3D printer which can make dentures automatically.

HEALTH NEEDS
SIMILARLY, there are many radiologists who do a range of procedures from X-rays to ultrasounds to scanning and MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging). But there are very few technicians to manage these machines. Similarly, patients with kidney problems need regular dialysis which is effectively cleaning of blood passing through the kidneys. There are nephrologists who are doctors specialising in kidneys. But there are very few technicians to conduct the dialysis.
There are many pathologists but not enough technicians to analysis blood and urine samples. The most dramatic example is in the area of pharmacy. Goa has a large number of multi-national pharmaceutical companies.
The most sought after effective COVID-19 tablet Remdesivir is made in Goa. Goa has two pharmacy colleges, including a government pharmacy college. Most of the students are women. But they remain unemployed because they are no facilities for them to do night shifts. Even in the normal course both the Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) and the private buses stop functioning after 8 pm. This also affects young people working in small and medium scale units who cannot afford to offer coaches to transport their employees.
Our request to parties and candidates is do not corrupt them with doles and alms. We are not beggars. Arrange for internship in every four and five starred hotels for six months for both our boys and girls. If they have a certificate claiming that they have done apprenticeship with a five-starred hotel like the Taj, the young men may qualify jobs on cruise liners and the young women may get jobs in restaurants.
Instead of doles, offer the hotels money to provide the training of young people so that they may get better jobs in hospitality. In fact, it should be made mandatory for all four and five-starred hotels, not to mention casinos, to offer training to our Goan boys and girls. But not as call girls or escorts please.
The greatest opportunity knocking on the doors of young Goans is the Mopa airport. Inevitably, when a large project comes up in Goa, no jobs are offered to Goans on the excuse that they are not qualified enough for the jobs. Half the jobs in Goa University are vacant, including that of the Registrar as there is no one qualifies.
Let this not happen when the Mopa airport comes up. Though Dabolim is Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho’s constituency, he has made no efforts to create jobs for Goans at Dabolim airport. With the coming up of the Mopa airport, the demand for aeronautical technicians will hit the ceiling.
sSurely our engineering colleges in Goa, particularly the government engineering colleges, can offer a course in aeronautical engineering? Surely our polytechnics and industrial training institutes (ITIs) can provide training in the repair and maintenance of aircraft. No flight takes off till the aeronautical engineer has certified it fit to fly.
We know of a former colleague in the “Herald,” who is one of the most experienced aeronautical engineers in the country. A niz Goenkar in his late 60s he says he would be delighted to help the M/s Salgaoncars to set up a high tech aeronautical engineering college in Goa.
Goans do not need doles. Do not insult Goan women by offering them doles and alms. Offer them training in skills that will enable them to be self-dependent and independent in financial status. Pay for training them to be air hostesses and airport ground handling staff! Give them the money to train to be nurses or home nurses. Give them the money to become technicians for aircrafts or electric cars. Give our women the money to become dental and radiological technicians. Give them the training to become political consultants as the IPAC calls themselves. Do not insult us. Keep your money. You cannot buy our votes. Goan voters are not for sale like Rahul Fernandes, Sujay Gupta and Luizinho Faleiro!