One (Tamba) flu over the cuckoo’s (Vishwajeet) nest!

Just the other day, I bumped into my friend Dr Porobo, today retired but a decade ago the man who was in the hot seat when malaria was as big a headline as swine flu is today. And coincidentally, Porobo was in a strikingly similar predicament as Dr Rajendra Tamba, until a week ago the State's nodal officer for swine flu, was. Both were not only battling an epidemic, they were also with their backs to a wall called Vishwajeet Rane. Only difference was that Rane junior was then an 'unknown quantity' and meddled in affairs of the state in an 'extra-constitutional' avataar as the 'CM's son' but today, he is the health minister, and his writ runs in the health ministry. Of course there's another little difference, Tamba's head rolled, Porobo's didn't.

In the fight that he led against malaria in the mid-1990s, Porobo, like Tamba in the current battle against swine flu, was saddled with a collosal task and just a few dimes, so to say, to handle it with. And in the midst of his marathon duel with malaria, came this fiat from the 'CM's son' to employ that pesky pesticide called 'deltamethrine' to eliminate the mosquito, apparently emanating from Rane Jr's not-so-secret affection for Pharma majors. Delthamethrine was being produced and marketed by Hoechst Russel Marion. Deltamethrine would have been ordered by the tonnes if Porobo was a mere babu. But the doctor in him just didn't permit him to obey the fiat because the Union health ministry had specifically barred its use so early in the fight against malaria fearing that resistance developed by the mosquito to it would render this last weapon in its armoury impotent sooner than wanted. So, Porobo dashed off to the cabin of another doctor, Wilfred de Souza, who incidentally happened to be DyCM and also the health minister. Together, the two doctors cooked Piqueno's goose. In the end, Porobo survived and so did Deltamethrine, to be used to save another day against malaria.
Such was not the luck of Dr Tamba. Not one, who calls himself a 'doctor' in the Directorate of Health Services gathered the wits to back him and so the only epidemiologist in its ranks is no longer the state's epidemiologist. But time I feel will heal, and Tamba will live another day in the Health Services, to have his last laugh.

FOOTNOTE: Dayanand Narvekar, who is presently roaring like a tiger merely mewed like its domestic cousin, then. Perhaps to please Rane junior who seemed to have all his father's ears, Daya released some one-odd million rupees from his Urban Development ministry for then PMC-now-CCP to buy three tonnes of Deltamethrine. It's another matter that Panjim's citizen's kicked the PMC in its butt and the stuff rotted in its godowns, used only at the then Ranes-occupied CM's official bungalow and a military barracks at Altinho!

Who says politicians always win?
It was meant to be a show to demonstrate the villagers' united might. And thanks to the alertness of the villagers presence of mind, it remained thus despite an attempt to give it a political twist and turn the tide against present Tivim MLA, Nilkanth Halarnkar.
It was on Sunday that villagers gathered to voice, unitedly, their opposition to the plans of Vedanta-owned Sesa Goa Ltd to revive a pre-Liberation mine at Nadora-Pirna.
President of the Pirna-Nadora Nagrik Kruti Samiti, Yoganand Gawas, was leading the villagers with slogans against Sesa Goa and the government.
To drive home his point that the government was pitted against the villagers, Gawas chided the local 'amdar' (Nilkanth) for not taking up the issue in the recently concluded assembly session.
Thankfully, the villagers had their heads on their shoulders and the cat was soon out of the bag. Some from among the audience called his bluff and pointed out that the whole process of reviving the mine had began in 2001, when Sadanand Shet Tanavade of the BJP was the local 'amdar'.
Why do you not question him for all his inaction?, shouted out one villager. Tanavade, who was also amidst the gathering, had this 'I-have-an-excuse-ready' look on his face. But fortunately, he was not asked for his comments, Gawas had to abruptly halt his fiery speech and another equally fiery speaker took over.

Rent two take one free, Anil style
Ferry boats were hotly debated about in the House in the recently concluded, rather long session of the Assembly. And at the crux of the matter was an unusual offer from mining magnate Anil Salgaocar -- a free ferry boat to the government.

Anil claimed the RND was still using the same ferries with an archaic pre-liberation, Portuguese design. Instead, he suggested he will design one atuned to present day needs and gift it to the government. Instead of a two-engine craft, he's would have only one for better fuel efficiency and would be meant only for two-wheelers and passengers which forms the bulk of Goa's ferry commuters. Indeed a refreshingly innovative idea, coming as it did from our otherwise boorish netas! Only, it took us in the media another 24-hours to learn that Anilbab's offer had an interesting twist -- a rider. The mining magnate had turned on its head the buy-some-take-some-free marketing funda. Instead, his offer to the government wasn't merely 'take a free gift (ferry) from me. Instead, it was: Take one free, then rent two from me. No wonder Anil is touted by most who know him to be the shrewdest businessman in the Salgaocar clan. Yet, the mess that the RND currently is, Anil's offer is worth giving a try!