By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when in a major setback to Vishwajit Rane the centre shot down his plans to convert Pernem into a concrete jungle. For a Saturday following the week when we advise you do not go to Casualty in GMC if you have not broken your head or limbs. For a Saturday following the week when the long-delayed National Games are about to start (scheduled Oct25 to Nov9, 2023) but out of the 72 venues only half are ready.
AND a few stray thoughts on a major setback to Vishwajit Rane when the centre shot down his plans to convert Pernem into a concrete jungle. It was an action replay for Rane to way back to 2009. Then Rane grabbed large parts of land at Canacona cheating tribal and using benami names. This was exposed by Goa Bachao Abhiyan; Rane has been more rapacious than Babush Atanasio Monseratte in facilitating the conversion of agricultural fields, he got Article 172 of the Town & Country Plan act amended He added new clause D under which the government could convert any land, farming, orchard or even forest land anywhere in Goa. It is under this clause that 25 per cent of Mopa land was sought to be converted.
Rane has also moved an amendment to permit the conversion of farmland into farmhouses. Excepting limit brought down to 1000 mts. So every posh villa with a swimming pool becomes a farmhouse. All the regional plans put the Planning & Development authorities into a state of limbo.
There is a provision that once in ten years government can make any changes it wants in land use plans. But this cannot bypass CRZ rules and farming laws. Public hearings must be held before any large scale conversion. It would appear senior BJP leader Sadanand M Shet Tanawade has managed to stall mass conversions in Pernem. Local MLA Jit Arolkar has strongly opposed the plan. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is also against it. It would appear that they have succeeded as Rane has deferred conversions.

GMC CASUALTY
AND a few stray thoughts on when you are advised not to go to Casualty at the Goa Medical College & Hospital. Don’t rush there in an emergency if you have not broken your head or limbs. It seems the GMC’s Casualty only entertains emergencies. If you have had a fall in the washroom and injured your head, go immediately to Casualty in GMC. If you go two days or two months later even in great pain they won’t admit you, unless you are at immediate risk of dying in an obvious emergency.
Instead you have to go the OPD of relevant section and stand in a long queue for the right doctor to attend to you. It is completely at the discretion of the medical head of department whether to admit you or not as a patient in need of medical attention. Only if you have a powerful Godfather can stupid petty rules be overcome.
On Monday, Oct 10 I spent six hours in Casualty being tossed between Geriatrics and Neurology doctors. In frustration, I made an appeal to superintendant Dr Rajesh Patil. He moved me to the ward he was personally responsible for, that is the Trauma Ward adjoining Casualty. This ward has a new look as it is to be used as a chief medical facility for the National Games coming up in Goa later this month from October 25.
With Ortho insisting I was not an emergency, Dr Rajesh Patil admitted me to his own ward. GMC does have private rooms but they cost only Rs1,200 per night. However you have to pay an advance of Rs10,000 and you also have to pay for every doctor’s visit and also for all tests and procedures done at nominal rates. They don’t accept debit cards or Google Pay or any other payment gateways. Don’t call for doctors all the time as you pay even if an intern comes to visit you. Every time you ask for a doctor he has to be summoned from the hostel.
The head honcho doctor will visit you with his entourage only once a day. At other times you are at the mercy of residents who are PHD students or interns like the half-baked MBBS Munnabai in the film who if you remember did a much better job than consultant super doctors.

MIGRANT SERVICES BETTER!
AND a few stray thoughts on migrants in Goa for whom the most profitable business is attending to patients in hospital wards. All hospitals including the GMC insist on a patient having an attendant 24 hours a day. So unless you have a large extended family with enough spare manpower or womanpower it is very difficult to find an attendant. You have to hire an attendant trained or untrained to be as good as ward attendant in helping patients handle their broken bodies.

The remuneration for hospital attendants is good although not for the poorer patients. The hired attendant or his company charges as much as Rs1,200 per working shift of eight or 12 hours. It can add up to Rs2,000 a day or a whopping Rs60,000 per month if the payments are by the hour and there are extra hours added on.
Goan attendant may not like helping a patient to change diapers in the toilet even if they are their own parents, let alone strangers. There are two agencies supplying professionally trained attendants. The attendants are mostly candidates from out of India in need of a job and they are given rudimentary training by their Goan boss and then assigned to patients in need of an hospital stay attendant.
We know Renuka Rao who has a large data bank of attendants for several services. She even supplies attendants who will cook and do total housekeeping for patients at home. The other agency is run by a Goan who gets boys and girls from Jharkhand, untrained help. We know some Goan hospital and home trained helps like Nutan who helps me; Nutan is a housewife compassionate and brings a motherly touch for patients. Of course there are no substitutes for your own children. I know a friend who used to read to her mother in a coma for two years and had the satisfaction of seeing her mother pass n peacefully.

NATIONAL GAMES COMING UP
AND a few stray thoughts on the long awaited and long delayed National Games which are about to start at 72 venues although we are told only half are ready venues. The heavy rains have exposed the shoddy work on tracks where athletic events like hundred-metre runs take place. Football and cricket have mass support in Goa but there has not been much encouragement for athletic events.
Goa with its vast coast and multiple pools has great scope for winning medals in swimming, yachting, road skating, etc. But the lesser but equally fascinating sporting activities receive little or no encouragement or support from the Goa government or business houses. It is only the House of Dempos under Shrinivas Dempo which sponsored badminton players, swimming and chess grandmasters. Neither the MPT nor Goa Shipyard have supported sports. Ironically, one of the stars of the Indian cricket team is Shikha Pande of the women’s team. Her father teaches in the Kendriya Vidyalaya.
At the college level, several students show interest. The daughter of a former PSO of mine was very interested in shotput but gave it up due to the pressure of studies. It would appear that only the very poor are interested in sports for half the medal winners in Asia are from very poor background families. Like landless labour and rickshaw drivers, sports must not be the last choice of hope. This will happen only with government encouragement. Goa must look beyond football. Let us inspire ourselves by legends like Nikhil Chopra, the Olympic World and Asian champ.

STALIN’S RAJ
AND a few stray thoughts about the spate of arrests of senior political leaders and media personnel which reminds me of the Stalin Raj when the first step was to shoot the messenger. If you got rid of the media there would be no one to report your butchery of rival politicians.
So first you raid NewsClick. Then you arrest Sanjay Singh, senior AAP leader. Then our most terrifying home minister, Amit Shah, asked police to destroy the infrastructure of terrorism. Which means everyone who opposes the Modi government. This only enables us to fight with double vigour.