AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was under tremendous pressure to create more government jobs in the Goa. For a Saturday following the week when the CM declared that by this year ending New Year 2024 all the potholed roads in Goa would be repaired. For a Saturday following the week when the cabinet agreed to an ordinance to ensure that Comunidade land is not converted for private commercial purposes. For a Saturday following the week when there was a revolt by Divar island residents against a massive tourism project coming up on the island. For a Saturday following the week when the Supreme Court asked N Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, not to use the Tirupati temple laddu prasad to play politics.

MORE JOBS, PLEASE!
AND a few stray thoughts on Chief Minister Pramod Sawant being under tremendous pressure to create more government jobs in the state. Ever since the National Employment Survey revealed that Goa has the highest rate of unemployment at 8% plus against the national average of 4%, the CM has been under pressure from BJP and RSS karyakarta. The CM’s immediate response is that Goan youth should not depend on government jobs. Sawant claimed that two lakh jobs would be created in the private sector over the next two years. This may be true but the harsh ground reality is that Goans do not want to work as cooks, butlers, security guards and shop attendants or any other seemingly low paying jobs. All Goans want either a government job or a job in the Gulf countries.
There is a limit to how many jobs a government can provide. Already the government is house full with reportedly 60,000 employees in the State government departments in public sector corporations. But with Town & Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane stepping up pressure on the chief minister, Pramod Sawant has announced the creation of an additional thousand government jobs. These are for lower-level posts for drivers, multitasking workers, etc, and these jobs carry a fixed salary from Rs15,000 to Rs 20,000. It is made clear that these are contract jobs and none of the new recruits will be entitle to absorption in regular jobs.
Initially, the chief minister had declared that all the new vacancies created will be filled in through the State Selection Board. This would have prevented individual ministers from providing jobs to their own supporters. Vishwajit Rane, who has created and filled up a very large number of vacancies in the Goa Medical College & Hospital with young people from Sattari taluka, including even posts for hospital barbers. Vishwajit Rane went right up to the top to meet Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President JP Nadda, to insist that the new recruitments should be done by the departments and not the State Selection Board.
Pramod Sawant had no choice but to agree and it is now been decided that the respective departments will recruit and fill vacancies notified. Unfortunately, this does not fulfill the job requirements of highly qualified engineers and even those who pass out of the IITs or the various Indian institutes of technology.

POTHOLED GOA
AND a few stray thoughts on Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant declaring that by the New Year 2024, all the potholed roads in Goa will be repaired. Never mind that during the peak of the peak season which are the months of November and December, many four-wheelers and more two-wheelers will sink into the potholes or fall into the Mandovi and Zuari rivers. In any case, road repairs may not reduce Goa’s high incidence of driving when inebriated or drunk. However, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant must be congratulated for transferring all the PWD engineers from the road division. But it is not the engineers who are the problem, it is the contractors.
Historically, PWD contractors have been forced to kick back huge amounts not only to PWD engineers but also the PWD minister. This is the primary reason why Goa roads continue to be in such bad shape and extract a deadly toll on human life. The government has been unable or is unwilling to crack down on the contractor mafia. Even Sanjit Rodrigues, who is considered a good officer, could not do anything about the contractors for Smart City Panaji projects. Sanjit had no freedom in appointing or sacking contractors not delivering on jobs.
As we may mentioned time and time again the most notorious of the big-time contractors have been Venkaiah Rao, a close relation of former vice-president, Venkaiah Naidu. Surprisingly, none of the road or building contracts have a penalty clause for withholding payment for shoddy and unfinished works.
Similarly, there is no compulsion on the part of the contractors to maintain and repair roads contracted to them. The irony is that the Union minister for surface transports and highways, Nitin Gadkari, is reportedly the most efficient of our BJP ministers. He has the distinction of completing the Mumbai-Pune Expressway in record time. It was during his tenure that all the flyovers in Mumbai came up. Pramod Sawant should take the advice and guidance of Nitin Gadkari to create a full proof system for awarding road contracts.
We hope at least the roads in the tourism belt and the bypass road between Panaji and old Goa will be smooth before the St Francis Xaviar Exposition starts on November 21 next month.

COMUNIDADE LAND SAFE!
AND a few stray thoughts on the cabinet agreeing to an ordinance to ensure that Comunidade land is not diverted to private commercial purposes. Suddenly the government seem to have made the discovery that Comunidade land allotted for a specific purpose has invariably been diverted. There is no provision in the Comunidade law for the diversion of land for purposes other than the original purpose. The new amendment 31A will bar the purchase of the license of the Comunidade land for altering the use of land for purposes other than originally granted. In Goa routinely large amounts of Comunidade land have been granted to private parties for mega projects.
For example, against the objections of the locals, Comunidade land had been allotted for a film city in Canacona. Similarly, the permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Technology has also been built on Comunidade land. There is a mysterious World Peace University coming up in Thivim. The Comunidades are controlled now primarily by the government and most of the administrators are government appointees. This enables the government to acquire and dispose of Comunidade land, overriding the objections of the Gaonkars. From time to time the government has amended the Comunidade Act to make the land available for not only government projects but even for government employees. A high-powered judiciary enquiry should be held into the misuse of Comunidade lands.

DIVAR ISLANDERS REVOLT
AND a few stray thoughts on the public revolt by the residents of Divar island against a massive tourism project on the island. Presumably, it was this project that Environmental Minister Alexio Sequeira was referring to, recently and not St Jacinto island. It may be recalled that Alexio Sequeira is promoting the idea of island resorts in Goa. This is not practical in Goa as unlike in the Maldives there are no uninhabited islands in Goa. Even the relatively isolated Bat island near Vasco da Gama has been taken over by the Navy. Bat Island was a favourite place for scuba diving.
The latest proposal by the government is to develop over 7,000 sq mtrs on top of a hill in Divar Island as an ecological tourist resort. The proposed project is coming up within the heritage zone of the local church. Divar is a lovely island with old Portuguese homes. It is the home of Julio Ribeiro, the country’s super cop and several other Goan personalities.
Forget about tourism projects, the residents of Divar strongly oppose even a bridge for that would affect the unique charm of the village. At present, the only tourism resort in the village is Devaaya, a wellbeing resort started by the late Victor Albuquerque. Apparently, the resort has been taken over by an international chain of resorts now. A small island called Vanxim just adjacent to Divar has been sold by the church to a Bengaluru party for setting up of a marina.
Last Sunday, September 29, 2024 there was a huge meeting to oppose the project. At the Gram Sabha meeting the sarpanch of Divar made it clear that they would not give a construction license to the tourism project on government land in Divar.

TIRUPATI LADDU
AND a last stray thought on the Supreme Court asking Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, not to use the Tirupati laddu to play politics. Naidu had claimed that the previous chief minister, Janardhan Reddy, had permitted the adulteration of the ghee used to make the Tirupati laddu. The Supreme Court has come to the conclusion that there is no evidence that the laddu which are given as prasadam at the temple were adulterated. The SC had rapped Chandrababu Naidu for using the laddu to play politics.
Apparently, one batch of the ghee that was bought for making the laddu was adulterated. But apparently, this batch of ghee supplied by a company from Tamil Nadu, was not used for making the laddu. It is obvious that nothing is sacred for politicians who even use and misuse temple offerings like prasadam to score points over their rivals.