To Goanet - This morning I attended a hearing on Industry Policy at the Goa Assembly chaired by Sudhin Dhavalikar. It was open to the public and time was allotted for the general public to make presentations.
Chairman Dhavalikar pointedly asked Sanjit Rodrigues if the SEZ policy has been scrapped in the state of Goa. Rodrigues dithered but when pressed by Dhavalikar said that the "economic zones" policy was still in force although the Goa govt has asked the Centre to denotify the 3 notified SEZs. GMAS and SVM - take note. We might have the SEZs back in some other guide with the word "Special" lopped off. We are dealing with a bunch of rascals here. In response to another question by Dhavalikar on the number of Goans employed in our Industrial Estates, the Managing Director of GIDC, Palekar, gave the following devious and misleading answer: "The numbers of Goans at Verna Industrial Estate are much greater than those at Cuncolim Industrial Estate." The govt has no numbers at all to back up anything, yet they are galloping ahead with more Industrial Estates, more land giveaways to promoters etc. My brief presentation as a member of the public included the following points (in slightly more polite language): - The govt's Industrial Policy is deeply flawed. The planning right now is along the top-down axis where you bring in a bunch of industries and then claim, "Oh, Goans are not available for these jobs, or, Goans don't want to work in these jobs," then use this as an excuse to recruit outsiders. This is the donkey's way of doing things. You first study the lay of the land, the needs of Goans, and the kind of skills & talent locally available, AND THEN formulate a policy. (This is so goddam elementary that I am perplexed that this point has to be made to the planners) - We want to see numbers and the breakdown of Goans and non-Goans employed in each Industrial Estate and the cumulative totals for the state. Warm regards, r