Goan Government Giveaways

By Plastino D'Costa

Most Goans blame our corrupt leaders for squandering Goa's wealth and hold them 
responsible for the sorry state of affairs today. But truth to tell, to some 
extent ordinary Goans must also learn to take the responsibility, as they are 
equally culpable for the mess. As if Goa were some prosperous nation, 
successive governments have been promoting welfare schemes, some genuine and 
important, but most conjured and unnecessary. Politicians have over the years 
been neatly packaging welfare schemes which are not necessarily in the best 
interests of the population. Actually most politicians get away with 
inefficiencies, because they have been regularly feeding the population with 
giveaways that look beneficial in the short term but will end up detrimental in 
the long term. Politicians who can dish out innovative schemes in the name of 
the poor are assured their seat in the sun. 

One such innovation, probably influenced by the US social security system, was 
our very own local social security scheme, meant for the aged, needy and the 
poor. This scheme has been openly abused by most Goans, dead or alive, rich or 
poor, old or not so old. Officials handling the scheme will tell you that in 
order to qualify for the scheme, most Goans go to the extent of lying to prove 
that they have no source of income, in spite of receiving fat transfers from 
their overseas children. Of course the government tries to check the 
credentials of the applicants, but that has not stopped some high net-worth 
Goans from receiving this dole money. The scheme, even if well-intentioned, 
hardly serves the purpose of taking care of our old and needy. Actually what is 
a thousand rupees in this environment of high cost-living? It hardly goes far 
for the receiver, but instead puts a collective financial burden on the giver. 
This scheme can only be compared to the bait a fish takes - the 
 amount of food on the bait can never fill the stomach of the fish, and 
everybody knows what happens when the fish takes the bait. 

Over the years the government has been one of the biggest employers of Goa, 
with politicians mostly acting as recruiting agents. Once Goans get employed in 
any government department by hook or by crook, that day they effectively forget 
the meaning of competence, integrity or hard work. In fact, once armed with a 
government job, they slowly learn the art of delay and put obstacles in the 
already entangled government procedures. There could be some who start 
sincerely, only to find out that there is no reward for sincerity. The 
government must realise that they can't solve the problem of unemployment by 
increasing the headcount of their already overstaffed departments by creating 
jobs of the synthetic variety. Most employees hardly add value to their 
departments; instead they are involved in duplication of work, unnecessary 
processes, or maybe employed to run personal errands for their immediate 
bosses. Even the government offices' seating arrangements do not synchronise 
the pa
 per flow or the process of the department. Of course most government employees 
hardly bother to look into their consciences when they collect their heavy pay 
packets, which never reflect the work they do. 

Ideally, school education should be considered a necessary expenditure of the 
government, hoping that students availing this free facility become productive 
citizens of society, and in turn pay back this subsidy in the form of taxes 
into the system. In Goa this turns out to be wasteful expenditure because a 
majority of these students end up becoming productive citizens outside Goa. To 
make sure Goans don't get an education, which might end up being detrimental to 
the interest of our leaders, an impractical condition of medium of instruction 
has been placed on schools to be able to avail the grant-in-aid. Without 
painting all parents with the same brush, there are some parents who spend 
their own money in sending their children to unaided english medium schools. 
These parents are not necessarily rich, as projected by many, but have made 
education a priority for their children. If wealth, or the lack of it, is the 
only criteria to avail free education in the state, then the gov
 ernment should close down most aided schools, as children from these schools 
do not necessarily come from poor backgrounds. The government is advised to 
make a survey at strategic aided school locations to observe how many children 
are dropped to their schools in the latest SUVs, sedans or hatchbacks. 

Of course the wasteful expenditure on the population does not stop there. Pass 
around some of the villages of Goa and we notice small yellow toilets being 
built at Government cost, that too beside some very decent houses. Of course 
these are used as supplementary toilets to the fancy toilets that might exist 
in these decent homes. In some villages these toilets are so dense that they 
run the risk of becoming part of the culture of the village. But what is 
culture to these Goans, who have already pawned that to Mr Vijay Mallya by 
allowing him to paint their villages in red? 

Ideally every government is supposed to take care of the welfare of their 
citizens, but for that to happen the government must have a robust revenue 
model. The Goa Government has been literally pampering Goans, and, to finance 
all these giveaways, those in the government in power as well as those in the 
Opposition are at the mercy of the hotel, mining and gambling lobby. No wonder 
most of our leaders are seen bending rules literally every single day to 
accommodate these lobbies - after all, like it or not, these businesses are the 
ones that bring in the money. The government, to balance their bills of 
payments, resorts to collection of taxes from businesses which might be 
environmentally unsound or morally unethical. Because of the nexus between 
politicians and the population scratching each others back, Generation-Next 
politicians will have to formulate a meaningful and honest way to win 
elections. The ill effects of receiving giveaways from politicians might work 
not be vis
 ible for a decade or two, but if we are concerned about Goa for the long term, 
then the general population should get their act together. The politicians will 
follow.


Above Article appeared on the Herald, Goa on December 14, 2009.

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