LOOKING BACK, TAKING STOCK (MARCH 14, 2012)
Eduardo Faleiro
lokseva...@gmail.com
I shall demit office as Commissioner for NRI Affairs
tomorrow.
After I returned from the Rajya Sabha in 2005 I was offered
some important assignments by the Hon. Prime Minister but I
could not accept them since for personal reasons I had to be
in Goa. I did not at any stage seek the present appointment
nor any other office in Goa.
However, the then Chief Minister, Pratapsingh Rane requested
me to take up the present job. I accepted considering that
since I was in Goa I might as well help in some way my fellow
Goans. I am honoured by the fact that the Prime Minister and
the Union Finance Minister among others have praised this
office verbally and in writing, for its efficiency and the
vast range of subjects of interest to NRIs that it deals
with.
According to them I was the most qualified among all the
heads of NRI Departments in the country, being a former Union
Minister of State for External Affairs as well as Finance,
subjects which are relevant to the Department of NRI Affairs.
Personally, I give all the credit for our achievement to two
outstanding individuals: Vice Admiral (Retd) John D’Silva,
Chairman of our Overseas Employment Agency and U.D. Kamat,
Director, NRI Affairs. They are quite competent to run this
Office on their own.
During my tenure, whilst the main focus was the
welfare of Goans residing abroad, I also attempted
to establish links with Goans elsewhere in India.
Seminars and meetings for this purpose were held
with their representatives from New Delhi, Mumbai,
Bangalore and Hyderabad.
Last month I visited several villages and towns in the
Kolhapur District and met a large number of families of Goan
origin settled there long ago. In the 16th and 17th
centuries a number of Goans, both Christians and Hindus, left
Goa to avoid religious and cultural persecution and settled
in the neighbouring areas of North Karnataka and South
Maharashtra. They are part of the local population. They
are Maharashtrians and Kanadigas but speak Konkani and visit
regularly their temples and churches in Goa.
This Office released in 2008 a comprehensive and scientific
Goa Migration Study. This study, however, concerns
exclusively Goa migration abroad and not within India. The
history of the Goan migration to the neighbouring areas,
centuries ago, needs to be written.
[1] http://www.scribd.com/doc/85304160/
[2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/85305278/
[3] http://www.scribd.com/doc/85305811/
Many of those persons are Christians and every year a large
number of them come walking for three to four days to attend
the Feast of St. Francis Xavier but when they arrive at Old
Goa, they do not have a reasonable place to rest. Whilst the
primary duty to provide basic facilities to these pilgrims
rests with the Church authorities, the Government ought to
make available to them the required infrastructure as is made
available to similar religious festivals.
I had decided to formulate a programme for the youth of Goan
origin in Maharashtra and Karnataka to discover their roots
in Goa, broadly on the lines of the Know Goa Programme which
we hold every year for the Diaspora youth.
The programme for the youth of Goan origin from the
neighbouring States would be aimed at youth in the age group
of 18 to 30 years who have distinguished themselves in some
field of activity. It would be a one week orientation
programme to promote awareness of different facets of life in
Goa. About 5-10 youths might be selected every year. During
their stay in Goa, they would visit our educational, cultural
and industrial institutions and interact with the local youth
as well as our elected representatives at different levels of
Government. These youth would act as bridges of friendship
and understanding between their State of origin which is Goa
and their State of adoption which may be Maharashtra or
Karnataka.
I shall do whatever I can in this matter but the Office of
the Commissioner for NRI Affairs and other authorities are
fully equipped to fulfill the above three tasks. (i) history
of Goan Migration to the neighbouring areas in the 16th and
17th centuries; (ii) arrangements for the padyatris who come
to Old Goa for the feast of St. Francis Xavier and (iii)
orientation programme for the youth of Goan origin as
outlined above.
[ENDS]
Goanet Reader is edited and compiled by Frederick Noronha.
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