At the last Goa Assembly elections held in 2012, of the 40 MLAs 19 were new faces. The BJP government held a two day orientation programmme for those MLAs at Hotel Mandovi in Panaji which cost the tax payers Rs 4, 87,880.
For that orientation held from 10 to 4 pm, Rs 2, 13, 225 was spent on lunch and refreshments while a handful of MLAs also needlessly chose to park themselves at the hotel for the night and make merry at the cost of the State exchequer. Of the five MLAs who stayed at the hotel, Ganesh Gaonkar topped the list with his possibly very spirited room bill for the night being Rs 15,123, while the room bill of Mahadev Naik and Ramesh Tawdakar was Rs 2620. Anant Shet’s bill was Rs 2972 while Carlos Almeida’s bill with a peg or two added up to Rs 4464. With Anant Shet’s future already sealed, the other four would know tomorrow if they too will go to bed as former MLAs. With lots of new faces likely to be MLAs tomorrow, may better sense prevail in them in always acting very judiciously and never abusing or misusing any perks. Aires Rodrigues Advocate High Court C/G-2, Shopping Complex Ribandar Retreat, Ribandar – Goa – 403006 Mobile No: 9822684372 Office Tel No: (0832) 2444012 Email: airesrodrigu...@gmail.com Or airesrodrig...@yahoo.com You can also reach me on Facebook.com/ AiresRodrigues Twitter@rodrigues_aires www.airesrodrigues.com