Lion Roars Mopa(ian) size land acquisition in the offing? Goanspirit learns that there is a written proposal in the in tray in the office of the Collector, north Goa, put there by the Padmashri Vamanrao Sardesai Trust which wants land for its proposed Vedanta Institute. No, this is not that Vedanta that plunders Mother Earth to make its billions, but an institute which fosters the propagation of Vedas. What is worrisome to GS is that this government will acquire someone's land somewhere, as we learn that the proposal is being deliberated on by it. So, land owners, brace yourselves for yet another grab on your land. And say a quick prayer in the interim that this latest requirement will not be of a Mopa-ian size land grab.
Flying circus is back Successive governments in Goa have been known for two things, arbitrary acquisition of people's land and for its ministers and officials travelling abroad on junkets. They have this obtuse way of brazening it out, but the depressing factor is, they are junkets any which way you look at it. This is the black box revelation of flights recorded and made by officials of the Tourism Department and Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) between March 2012 and 28 February 2013. The department's assistant director Rajesh Kale and Tallabathulla Ravishankar, a consultant, flew out to visit the ITB, Berlin 2012 from March 7-11. In the days March 21-24, Milin Chodankar, information assistant took off to the MITT, Moscow 2012. The deputy director of tourism, Pamela Mascarenhenas and assistant tourist officer Ganesh Teli flew closer home to the Indian Crafts Festival at Kathmandu, Nepal from April 27-May, 2012. Teli next took off to attend the ITB, Singapore 2012 along with Gajanan Mahale, information assistant, from October 17-19. If you wonder why GS has not given an account of their undoubtedly heavy expenditure, it is only because these flight happy officials have not had the time to submit their travel and allowance bills. But be assured that all of the 2012-13 budget of Rs 8,75,000 allotted to the Department of Tourism and all of the Rs 6,00,00,000 allotted to GTDC will be wiped clean by the end of the fiscal. They are getting there already. GTDC went a full mach ahead flying Vasco MLA Nilesh Cabral and the corporation's chairman to Lisbon and Portugal between October 8-13 spending a cool Rs 4,32,203 of your tax money. For company, he took along the MD Nikhil Desai (expenditure: Rs 1,86,765) and Deepak Narvekar, its public relations officer (expenditure: Rs 2,13,005). A month later, Desai jetted off to London for eight days spending Rs 2,05,422 of your hard earned tax monies. Earlier that year, GTDC's previous MD Melvyn Vaz flew to Berlin and Germany for nine days (March 5-13) blowing up Rs 2,84,455 of that hard earned money again. The free-spending corporation increased its carbon footprint sending Bernadetta De Souza, general manager-administration to Moscow between September 18-22 (expenditure: Rs 2,83,069) along with Thelma Moses, executive aide to the MD (expenditure: Rs 1,98,111). That's a total of Rs 10,37,395 and mounting. More at: http://www.goanspirit.com/index.php/bits-bytes/253-lion-roars ~Avelino
