By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when there were persistent rumors that the mastermind of the cash-for-jobs scam is a woman. For a Saturday following the week when we learn about the declining number of jobs in the private sector. For a Saturday following the week when banks have become redundant. For a Saturday following the week when there was an urgent need to provide for periodical renewal of ID cards like Aadhar, Voter ID card, PAN Card, driving license, etc. For a Saturday following the week when the Goa police exposed a huge fake call centre linked to companies in the United States.
AND a few stray thoughts on the persistent rumors that the mastermind of the cash-for-jobs scam is a woman. Among others, Vijai Sardesai of the Goa Forward party has been threatening to expose the mysterious (madam) Queen Bee of the cash-for-job scam. It is also not clear that “madam” is the wife of senior members of the Pramod Sawant government. It has even been alleged that the “mistress mind” of the job scam could be the first lady of the state. Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant seems to be on the back foot over the cash-for-job scam.
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that most of those arrested in connection with the cash-for-job scam are women. A large number of government school teachers have already been arrested in connection with the job scam. Ever since reports hinted that the boss of the job scam racket was a “madam” the police have stopped making more arrests. It cannot be that there are no new complaints about young people being conned under the pretext of being offered government jobs.
It may be recalled that for almost a month daily there have been fresh complaints and the police registered a new case in the cash-for-job scam. Since the departments involved in the cash-for-job scam are primarily the Health and the TCP departments, Revenue department, PWD and the Directorate of Accounts, the finger of suspicion points towards the respective ministers.
Vishwajit Rane is the minister for Town & Country Planning and also Health minister. Babush Monserrate is Revenue minister. An audio recording has surfaced implicating Babush in the cash-for-job scam. There are also reports of posts for junior engineers in the PWD being sold. Since Nilesh Cabral was forced to resign to make way for Alexio Sequeira, the PWD portfolio is held by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant himself.
To counter the complaints over Goans being cheated with offers of government jobs, the CM has repeatedly suggested that the Staff Election Commission will be entrusted with the responsibility for filling the vacancies. Historically, the Goa Public Service Commission used to be the agency for recruitment for government jobs. Under pressure from individual ministers the GPSC was limited to recruiting only junior and senior officers and the filling of Class III and Class IV jobs was left to the individual departments. Class III includes the recruitment of lower division clerks. Class IV covers peons now called multi-tasking staff.
For the ruling party MLAs providing jobs for their supporters is not a question of generating money. If the ministers and ruling party MLAs do not provide jobs to people in their constituency they are liable to lose the next election. It is widely believed that Laxmikant Parsekar, the former BJP chief minister, lost the election because he did not provide jobs for people in his constituency.
With elections due in 2027 ministers and MLAs of the ruling party cannot take the support of their voters for granted. The problem is that there are no vacancies in the government.

JOB DECLINE
AND a few stray thoughts on the declining number of jobs in the private sector. Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant has been promising that thousands if not lakhs of jobs will be generated in the private sector. He has been claiming that the tourism sector alone could provide over one lakh jobs in the next two years. Admittedly, the number of jobs in the services sector, which includes travel and tourism shops, and delivery for online commerce and food, is constantly growing.
Unfortunately, Goans are not interested in such jobs. In the first place, the salaries offered are very poor compared to government jobs. Most of the jobs in the service sector are on a purely contract basis. There is no job security and employees are hired and fired. Goans prefer paying agents to get them even contract jobs in the government in the hope that they would be regularized sooner or later. There is tremendous pressure from parents for their children to take up any kind of job as the best guarantee of lifelong security.
I recall one of my secretaries in my old OHeraldo years days being forced by her mother to take up a job as a personal assistant of then Industries Minister Luizinho Falerio. However, the greatest source of employment in any state are jobs in manufacturing businesses. For instance, the newly set up factory for manufacturing iPhones in Tamil Nadu by the Tata’s offers more than 50,000 jobs. Similarly, Samsung employs over 10,000 in its manufacturing facility again in Tamil Nadu.
Unfortunately, nobody seems to want to invest in factories in Goa. Even if the factories come up they prefer hiring migrant works as the complaint is that Goans do not have a work ethic. Catholics will run away for church fests and Hindus for jatra. Large extended families also means constant leave taking for marriages, wedding receptions, birthdays, sickness in the family, etc.
Unfortunately, there is no estimate of vacancies in the private sector. There was a time when the Employment Exchange was effective. People who had no jobs were required to register and jobs would be found for them. Industrial units and commercial organizations that have more than 20 employees were required to give preference to those registered with the Employment Exchange. The rules have never been implemented and people have stopped registering with Employment Exchange. Through the 40-plus years I have resided in Goa I have not employed a single person through the Employment Exchange as they do not have qualified people.

BANKS REDUNDANT
AND a few stray thoughts on how banks have become redundant. There was a time when everyone was forced to go to the banks to deposit and withdraw money. Every depositor was issued a check book which was the only way of paying somebody or withdrawing money for some personal use. With the emergence of digital transactions, there is no need for routine bank visits. The shift to digital banking began with Automatic Teller Machines (ATM).
This was accompanied by the mass issue of credit and debit cards. Debit cards became very popular as there was no risk, you may only withdraw money you have in your bank account. But even debit cards have become unnecessary with most transactions being done digitally. Payments through GooglePay and UPI and other gateways are almost universal now.
Till five years ago only the rich and the upper middle class received and made payments through digital transactions. Now of course even the local vegetable and fish vendors have a QR code through which you can make your digital payments for shopping anything from vegetables to any consumer goods. I understand that even beggars have acquired QR codes which means Quick Response. Initially, it was very complicated to use QR codes. With the installation of cameras in all smartphones everyone has excess to digital transactions. The greatest attraction is that it is instant. You can pay your electricity bill, your mobile bills, your children’s school fees and do almost every transaction digitally. You can also receive payments instantly within seconds directly into your bank account. Every individual can excess his or her bank account through their digital App and transfer funds to whoever they want.
The only limitation is that you can’t make payments in foreign exchange. People have no use for paper money or even banks although there’re people who insist in doing their small shopping and paying in cash when there’s a growing problem of return change which may never be returned up to Rs5. If you don’t have the correct change, it’s your problem that you want to pay in cash and to be truly looked down on.

RENEWAL OF CARDS
AND a few stray thoughts on the urgent need to provide for periodical renewal of ID cards like Aadhar, Voter ID card, PAN Card, driving license, etc. The Finance ministry has just announced that a new updated pan-card with a QR code will be issued soon to all citizens. Once the new system is set up all the current 78 crore people who have a pan card will get an upgraded card with QR code. This is only the first step, it is proposed to add a QR code to other identity documents like Adhaar card, voter ID card, ration card, vehicle license, etc. The present facility for digital signatures for company directors may be extended to individuals also. This will make the identity cards much more secure.
The reading is that in the absence of a QR code, it is possible to forge Aadhar cards and even vehicle licenses. In any case there has to be a provision for renewal of identity documents, particularly the photos and residential addresses. Over a span of one or two decades, even the looks of a person changes. Increasingly I come across Aadhaar cards issued over 20 years ago. Very often the present look of the person is very different from what one sees on the Aadhaar card photograph. This is because ID cards like Aadhaar and even driving licenses were issued 20 years ago and carry photos of young people while in college. though they may now be in their 40s.
As far as I know, the only ID document that has to be renewed is the passport. It must be made mandatory to renew all ID cards at least every ten years, if not every five years. This need not cause too much inconvenience as it can be done digitally.

FAKE LINKS TO US COMPANIES
AND a last stray thoughts on the Goa police having just exposed a huge fake call centre link to companies in the United States. The call centers are being operated from Zuari Nagar and reportedly they have cheated over 10,000 people to the extent of Rs10 crore. Not only the mastermind but 25 employees from Delhi, Noida, Punjab and Maharashtra have been arrested. None of the employees who were paid Rs40,000 were from Goa. The police have seized 26 laptops, 24 headphones and eight internet routers.
The call centers are inducing US citizens to pay large sums in the form of gift cards, bitcoins and easy money investments under false promises. Indeed, the digital world is full of scams directed towards conning senior citizens. A Mumbai senior citizen was being terrorized for one month by fake police officers who accused her of cheating the government.