For favour of early publiction, please.
Averthanus
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DISSIPATIVE GOVERNANCE.
Averthanus L. D'Souza.
The strong and unambiguous voice of Goa's citizens has finally
succeeded in overcoming the short-sighted and destructive policy of the Goa
Government which was based on the greed of business interests and their
pliable political friends instead of on the greater good of Goa. Bowing to
the coordinated and persistent opposition of the people, the Chief Minister
has finally decided to scrap the misconceived policy of setting up Special
Economic Zones in Goa at the behest of the Central Government. The Goa
Government has been compelled to respect the wishes of the common man;
however, this has been done grudgingly and reluctantly. There are still
some Ministers and MLAs who insist that SEZs will be good for Goa. It is
interesting to note that while they make these assertions, they do not
advance a shred of evidence to back up their claims.
The common Goan citizen is now convinced that these renegade
politicians are merely acting as the stooges of manipulative businesses,
quite obviously for a consideration. It is high time that the citizens,
specially of their constituencies, ensure that these politicians are not
re-elected when the next round of elections come around. We do not want
traitors to represent us in the august halls of the Legislative Assembly.
We have been informed by the Chief Minister and by some legal
luminaries that since the setting up of the SEZs was the prerogative of the
Central Government, there are legal obstacles to the freedom of the Goa
Government to scrap those SEZs which were already notified by the Central
Government. However, there appears to be no contention to the fact that if
the Central Government has notified some areas, then it can also de-notify
the same. Since the Goa Government has made its request clear, it should be
expected that the Central Government will respect the decision of the State
Government. Since the notification of the SEZs is an executive action of
the Central Government, there should be no legal hurdles to denotify them
by a similar executive decision. The Central Government should not play a
cat and mouse game with the people of Goa whose clear preference has been
made known to the Goa Government, and passed on to the Central Government.
The question which agitates the Goan citizen, however, is of a
more fundamental nature. What was the procedure which was followed in
arriving at the decision to permit the applicants to set up the several SEZs
in Goa? The Chief Minister, in a discussion with representatives of the
SEZ Virodhi Manch admitted that many established procedures were not
followed. He also admitted that it was a grave default that the projects
were not placed before the people before they were recommended to the
Central Government for approval. This admission shows up a serious lacuna
in the way the administration is conducted. For one thing, it exposes the
arbitrary manner in which the Goa Industrial Development Corporation
functions. It appears to have (mis)appropriated to itself the power of
decision making which appropriately belongs to the Cabinet. This is a
very serious breach of the norms of a Cabinet form of Government. No
Corporation should be allowed to misappropriate the powers of the Cabinet.
Furthermore, the GIDC has been shown to have breached its own norms and
procedures. One example cited is the fact that an applicant was allotted
more land than it had requested in its application; for another, an
application for land was approved even without the project details being
presented to the Board of the GIDC. These actions of the GIDC are not
only highly irregular; they tantamount to criminal breach of established
procedures. This is why the SEZ Virodhi Manch strongly demands a CBI or a
Judicial Enquiry into the functioning of the GIDC. This is a very serious
matter, and the Chief Minister will be in serious error if he sweeps this
demand under the carpet. His personal credibility as well as the
credibility of his Government is at stake here. He will be well advised to
immediately constitute either a CBI or a Judicial Enquiry and demand a final
report within the shortest possible time - not more than six months from
now.
Another fundamental dissonance in the functioning of the
Government is the fact that many of these redundant Corporations are
functioning as parallel governments without accountability to the legally
elected Government. Each of these Corporations acts independently of other
Corporations or other Departments of the Government. A glaring example of
this is the construction of a drainage system along the Miramar - Dona Paula
bypass road by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation without
any reference whatsoever to the Corporation of the City of Panjim. When
several Corporations function at cross purposes there can only be chaos as a
result of their activities. Another recent revelation during an analysis
of the Outline Development Plan for Panjim was the fact that the Goa Water
Resources Department was involved in a project at Campal to prevent land
erosion by the ingress of sea water - a task which has not been allocated to
it under the Goa Ground Water Regulation Act, 2002. Quite obviously it
has acted beyond its jurisdiction.
Space does not permit a more detailed elaboration of the many
ways in which the Goa Government is mal-functioning. But it is time that
the Chief Minister takes a hard look at the many dysfunctions of his
Government and takes immediate remedial action before it is too late. It
will not suffice to tinker with the existing legislations. What is needed
is a radical revision of the legal framework within which the Government
functions. A recent news item (Gomantak Times, January 1st, 2008 page A4)
informed us that in order to provide security for Mr. Aleixo Sequeira, Power
Minister, his residence was surrounded by 2 battalions of the CRPF, 3
battalions of the IRP, 4 battalions of the State Police and one from the
Verna Police Station. At hand were the South Goa District Magistrate,
Margao Sub Divisional Magistrate and 6 other Magistrates. The Police
force was led by 2 Deputy SPs, 4 PIs, and 8 PSIs. The news item described
the security arrangements as resembling a fortress with the CRPF and the IRP
personnel armed with shields, guns and tear-gas guns. The cost of this
security, according to the news item was approximately Rs. 60,000. If this
is not ridiculous, what is? Should the people of Goa bear such
unnecessarily exorbitant costs for the protection of one stupid Minister?
It would have been much cheaper to have confined him in a police cell
under protective custody or preventive detention.
Averthanus L. D'Souza,
D-13, La Marvel Colony,
Dona Paula, Goa 403 004.
Tel: 2453628.
