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GOA BUILDS A ROAD PAVED WITH GOLD... ALMOST >From Pamela D'Mello asianage at sancharnet.in Panaji, Nov 27: For an Indian road it comes paved with gold, almost. At Rs 6.5 crore (Rs 65 million) a kilometre, the four laning of Panaji's waterfront Mahatma Gandhi Road has come at a collosal Rs 52 crore (Rs 520 million) for an eight kilometre stretch. As Goa's Rs 120 crore (Rs 1200 million) International Film Festival of India-related expenditure comes to completion in this quaint state capital, the opposition Congress have called for "financial disclosure" of what they term as an "extravagant waste". An average road costs Rs 15 lakhs (Rs 1.5 million) a kilometre, says former Congress MP Shantaram Naik, as Opposition members made a strongly worded criticism of the public money spent over IFFI, almost all of it in chief minister Manohar Parrikar's constituency of Panaji. Some 2000 ornamental and street lamps have been imported from Belgium at a cost ranging between Rs 60,000 to Rs 150,000 each, while Rs 20 lakh (two million rupees) have been spent on three lights at a temporary jetty. "We are not against IFFI, and will pursue its permanent hosting in Goa. It's the modus operandi of the chief minister we object to", Congress' party president in Goa Luizinho Faleiro said at a press conference here. "Money has been burnt" without the approval of the legislature, disregarding the Opposition, NGOs and permissions required under the law of the land, he charged, Rs 100 crore (Rs 1000 million) worth of existing buildings and infrastructure were demolished to hurriedly make way for a new Rs 24 crore (Rs 240 million) multiplex, currently being operated by INOX Leisure Ltd. "With that sort of money one could have built 10 Apollo hospitals, 200 kilometres of road and 500 health centres," Mr Faleiro said. A Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) upgradation of the state's Kala Academy -- three quarters of it spent to put in projectors the use of which after the film festival is still unclear -- and Rs 135 lakhs (Rs 13.5 million) on nine plasma televisions, audio and cooling equipment has similarly raised eyebrows here. Panaji's upgrade is beginning to rankle as comparisons are made between cratered roads in tourist hub areas of Calangute, interior village roads, and erratic power and water services. A Rs 28 crore (Rs 280 million) new Secretariat and Rs 36 crore (Rs 360 million) on a new Legislative Assembly complex are some of the more expensive Goa government projects in recent years in a state which has growing financial difficulties and a debt burden. (ENDS)
