All the CM’s portfolios

The 'brief' four-day winter session of the Goa Legislative Assembly held in mid-December had its share of fireworks. But then, all sessions do. Only the intensity varies. What however caught the eye of some of us journos, this time, are the targets at whom Opposition Leader, Manohar Parrikar, fired his guns -- Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and Health Minister, Vishwajeet Rane.

Parrikar, in his inimitable style 'exposed' at least three scams in departments under the charge of the Chief Minister -- the Rs 40-crore alcohol import scam, the illegal mining scam and the single-print, double-print 'Digambar's Two Years as CM' brochure scam. All the three portfolios -- Finance for the alcohol scam, Mines for illegal mining and Information and Publicity for the brochure scam -- are held by the Chief Minister.

Strangely, Parrikar didn't go for the 'kill' and jaded his attacks by training his guns on the bureaucrats rather than the minister. Also, the killer instinct was extinct. Instead, the Opposition Leader mutely accepted the CM's offer of holding 'administrative' inquiries and entrusting the job to the Chief Secretary. Understandable. Thirty months, that's when the next round of elections are due here in Goa, is too long a time in politics!

As for Vishwajeet, his 'clean sweep' where the health department spent a whopping Rs one-crore on 'outsourcing' cleaning and housekeeping the swanky new but yet-to-be-opened district hospital in his home town of Mapusa that Parrikar and gang exposed, was quite an eye-opener.
Jr Rane got away even more easier than the CM with a "Speaker Sir, If the Opposition Leader has any suggestions on this (outsourcing), I will be happy to accept it," remark directed at Papa in the Speaker's seat.
We smell a plot, don't we?

Ponda’s dusty Christmas
Dashing through the snow...errr...dust!
That in a nutshell has been the story of Santa Claus's journey through Ponda city this Christmas. Fondekars, as the inhabitants of the state's cultural capital are known as, haven't quite had it easy in this last month of the 00's decade. The 'destroy the garden' plan of their city fathers and mothers has occupied their minds for some weeks now, and since September, ongoing works related to gutter repairs, road widening, paving, etcectra, etcectra, have made life miserable living.

Residents complain they can't keep their windows open with the air polluted with dust because the PWD, GSIDC and the civic authorities have bitten more than they can chew. Apparently, the machinery has opened too many fronts and almost all the works in Shantinagar, Santa Cruz, Varkhandem, Silvanagar, Tisk and Durgabhat that have been taken up are incomplete, more than three months since they were taken up.
We can sympathise with the Fondekars. Not a very White Christmas this, for them!

Agassaim PS has another DGP?
Goa DGP, BS Bassi's writ is worth nothing in Agassaim. Instead, the men at the one-storeyed police station hugging the NH-17 on the northern side of the rickety Zuari bridge, take their instructions, orders and diktats from a self-appointed DGP -- local MLA Francis Silveira. The MLA of the area since 1999, Silveira has a Hitlerish stranglehold over the police station, somewhat reminiscent of what happens in Northern India's 'jungle rule'. Any complaint made at the police station inevitably reaches the Silveira residence for adjudication.

Take this one pertaining to domestic violence for example. Some time in early December, an 18-year-old lass had walked up to the police station with a complaint that her maternal uncle, at whose house she lived, had brutally assaulted her. The girl has lost her father, and her mom, is in the Middle-East, earning their bread. The same morning, the uncle who is a government employee and happens to be the MLA's man, reaches the latter's residence. End result: Nothing. There's no case registered, although the girl was sent for medical examination to the GMC and it revealed injuries, including a fracture. Quite to the contrary, the tables were turned against the victim and the officer at the Agassaim police station, abused the girl and her fiance with crass, filthy language when the latter went there to pursue her complaint. The complainant didn't pursue the matter or take it up with the higher-ups at the Police Headquarters, because her fiance was to leave for Dubai to start his innings to earn his bread and the cops might have caused trouble for him on that front. Reason enough for NRI Commissioner Eduardo Faleiro to dump all his labour directed to the welfare of Goans overseas and instead help those who need help most -- dependants of NRIs living here at home.

Interestingly, all this happened at the Agassaim police station less than 72 hours after DGP Bassi's bhashan on how he plans to 'sensitise' the force on police-citizen interface and blah-blah-blah on Human Rights Day.

Name change
There's overwhelming feedback to have a name change. Reluctantly, I've agreed.
Several readers have written, called, e-mailed and even directly conveyed their reservations over the 'tantrums' in this column's nomenclature. It's too negative, say some. Others, including my boss Derek Almeida, say it (tantrums) is too trivial, too kiddish. Don't fully agree, because, kiddish is what the central characters of the column in most cases -- our politicos -- are. Nevertheless, with respect for my boss, and the many readers who want it, the column will have a new name in the new year: Tuesday....... Have a couple of names in mind but haven't quite made the final decision. I have until next Tuesday. Until then, Happy New Year!