REJECT MONSTER PANAJI BACHAO by Rajan Narayan, of Goan Observer

(This article is written by Rajan Narayan Editor of Goan Observer and is by Courtesy of Goan Observer)

The capital city has been vandalised and bled to death by the Creator, Manohar Parrikar, and his Creation, Babush Monserrate. It is time for all activists to get together to bachao Panaji.

THE GOA Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) was able to take on the might of Babush Monserrate, the architect of the diabolical Regional Plan 2021, and the opportunistic Manohar Parrikar, who had handed over the license to loot and plunder Goa to Babush Monserrate by appointing him minister for town and country planning. The Goa Bachao Abhiyan, in the face of stiff opposition from the builders’ lobby and the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCI) and a host of vested interests, managed to mobilise the people of Goa to successfully agitate for the withdrawal of the notorious Regional Plan 2011, which sought to convert green Goa into one huge concrete jungle. But the GBA has forgotten the imperative of saving Panaji.

ACTIVIST DOCTOR

The original convener of the GBA, which spearheaded the agitation for the scrapping of the Regional Plan 2011 and is still fighting against the subversion of the vision of the Task Force, is a resident of Panaji - Dr Oscar Rebello. A significant majority of the members of the core committee of the GBA, including Aravind Bhatikar, Annand Madgavkar, Satish Sonak, Prajal Sakhardande, Patricia Pinto and Reboni Saha (just to mention a few) are residents and voters of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP). Therefore, I am agitated and agonised and furious that these people, who are all residents of Panaji and voters in the Corporation of the City of Panaji, seem to be totally unconcerned about ‘bachaoing’ Panaji, which has been vandalised and brutalised both by the creator of the Monster Rat, Manohar Parrikar, leader of the opposition and representative of Panaji in the legislative assembly, and his creation, Babush Monserrate, who is cockily insisting that his panel will sweep the forthcoming elections to the Corporation of the City of Panaji.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

PANAJI is home to some of the most prominent industrialists of Goa, including Audhut Timblo, Srinivas Dempo, Anil Counte, Victor Albuquerque, Manoj Caculo, amongst many others. I asked one of the movers and shakers whether he would like to emulate the example of Nana Bandekar and ensure that corrupt politicians do not manage to take control over the CCP, as they attempted to do in the case of the most populated municipality in the state - Mormugao. It may be recalled that it was primarily due to the intervention of industrialist Nana Bandekar that Jose Philip D’Souza, the corrupt revenue minister who fielded both his wife and his brother in the Mormugao Municipal elections, was not able to capture the chairmanship of the Mormugao Municipal Council. The reply I got from the mover and shaker was “It is hands off as far as I am concerned. Let the creator (Manohar Parrikar) and the creation (Babush Monserrate) slug it out.

What did the Creator and his Creation do for Panaji during their tenure as members of the Legislative Assembly and, more importantly, when they controlled the Corporation of the City of Panaji? Indeed even the outgoing council of the Corporation of the City of Panaji is controlled by the creator Manohar Parrikar and his creation Babush Monserrate, who have now locked horns and are engaged or about to engage in a ruthless war to retain their control of the CCP. Indeed, both Manohar Parrikar and Babush Monserrate are on record that they consider the electoral battle for the control of the CCP as the semi final for their ambition to win the Panaji legislative assembly seat in the next general elections.

The creator, Manohar Parrikar, has actually been the destroyer of Panaji city. In his obsession with beautifying Panaji in the run-up to the first International Film Festival of India, held in Goa in 2003, Manohar Parrikar destroyed the Bandodkar football stadium, which was initially considered one of the possible venues for the multiplex that subsequently came up in the old GMC complex. Manohar Parrikar was the Narkasur who demolished several buildings forming part of the old GMC complex and handed them over in a rigged tender to INOX. Manohar Parrikar was the man who vandalised the Panaji Municpal Council, which took another seven years to be restored to its pristine glory.

Manohar Parrikar was the man who literally threw money down the drains when, in the course of the beatification of Panaji city, the old drains were destroyed. Manohar Parrikar was the man who vandalised the Mala Lake, which under the guise of developing and beautifying it, and is learnt be handed over to a private party for a huge kick back. And what does Manohar Parrikar have to offer the residents of Panaji if they vote the BJP panel back to power in the forthcoming elections” A full sized statue of the ‘Father of the Opinion Poll’, Jack Sequeira.

GARBAGE DUMP

BETWEEN the Creator, Manohar Parrikar, and his Creation, the Monster Rat of Taleigao, they have converted the whole of the beautiful capital city into a garbage dump. Public memory should not be so short as to forget that it was Manohar Parrikar’s decision to divert all the garbage of Mapusa from Ganeshpuri to the Curca garbage dump, that led to the closure of the Curca garbage dump because of an overload. The Creation has been sabotaging the location of a garbage dump at Bainguinim on the Kadamba Plateau at the instance of his close associate and mega real estate developer, Pandurang Madkaikar.

Not only has Babush Monserrate willfully obstructed the location of the garbage dump and waste treatment plant in Bainguinim, but has been wily enough to get the CCP to pay for the clearance of the garbage in the Taleigao Panchayat area just because one of the many temporary sites for the garbage dump to service the residents of the Corporation of the City of Panaji is located within the jurisdiction of the Taleigao Panchayat. And the Monster Rat wanted to siphon off huge amounts of money by making payments to a third party for the garbage dump at La Marvel colony in Dona Paula though the members of the colony were willing to offer the quarry, which is part of the colony, free of cost to the CCP for dumping garbage. It is during the tenure of Babush Monserrate-controlled CCP that garbage has been dumped in every part of Panaji, ranging from the parade ground in Campal to the Nariman Point of Panaji, the EDC complex at Patto, which houses the head offices of many central government offices and corporate offices of the state.

PARKING SCAM

What has been the performance of the CCP, where the ruling group comprises of puppets of Babush Monserrate and the opposition consists of chamchas of Manohar Parrikar? The CCP, when it was under the control of the BJP, is alleged to have allotted shops in the new municipal market to its own supporters, ignoring the claims of those who were displaced when the old market was demolished. In the process of reviewing the allotments, both the councillors controlled by Babush and those owing allegiance to Manohar Parrikar have further compounded the mess in the new market. One of the councillors of the CCP, Naguesh Karishetty, owing allegiance to Babush Monserrate, is the principal accused in the parking scam.

The audit report of the CCP talks about ghost workers who are on the rolls of the CCP and have been collecting wages regularly, but actually do not exist at all. Indeed the record of the CCP, under the puppets of Babush Monserrate in the ruling group and the opposition owing allegiance to the BJP, has been one of fraud, criminal negligence and unlimited loot and plunder of the tax payers’ funds. The CCP has not even been able to collect the existing miserable house tax - as low as Rs 200 - or commercial tax from the premises owned by it on 18th June Road and the Panaji Municipal Garden square, leave alone raise the rents to commercial rates prevailing in the heart of the city. So much so, the richest city of them all in Goa is on the verge of bankruptcy.

CENTRAL FUNDS

UNDER the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme, literally hundreds of crores have been sanctioned for strengthening the infrastructure of the Corporation of the City of Panaji. But the CCP has not been able to avail and make use of the funds granted by the Central government because it has neither been able to draw up suitable schemes or provide utilisation certificates for the funds allotted. So much so, year after year the funds allotted for the strengthening of the infrastructure within the jurisdiction of the CCP have been allowed to lapse. Ironically, during the fag end of the tenure of the CCP, at the very last meeting of the CCP in fact, the ineffectual puppet of a mayor Caroline Po placed on the table an agenda to the preparation of the detailed report under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission for a water supply system for Panaji city and the surrounding areas.

The NCP Corporator, Avinash Bhonsle, rightly insisted that the project report was an eyewash and questioned why the money given by the Centre was being diverted to the PWD whose responsibility it was to supply water to Panaji city. Why did it take so long for the CCP, controlled by puppets of Babush Monserrate and Manohar Parrikar, to prepare a project report and approve the project report for projects estimated to cost Rs 370 crore budgeted under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme? Ironically, the CCP spent Rs 1 crore to appoint a consultant and Rs 2 crore on advertisements for preparing various schemes to utilise the money provided by the Centre, much of which was diverted to other government bodies like the KTC because of the delay of putting up the proposals and getting them approved.

There can be no question in anyone’s mind that the present woes of the CCP are the legacy of the Creator and his Creation. It is pathetic that the residents of the capital city, which is home to the movers and shakers of Goa, should limited to choosing between the destroyer Manohar Parrikar and the plunderer and looter Babush Monserrate. Surely honourable citizens of Panaji, who played such a major role in getting the notorious Regional Plan 2011 scrapped, can offer a better third option to the voters of Panaji. Surely, in their own interest, all the movers and shakers of Panaji city and the social activists who have led so many movements owe something more tangible to Panaji.

After all, isn’t the fundamental principle of the 73rd and 74th amendment to the Constitution and the guiding principle of the Task Force bottom up development? Surely the Goa Bachao Abhiyan, which has assisted so many village panchayats in drawing up futuristic ecological sustainable developmental plans, should be able to come up with a plan for the CCP which will meet the genuine needs of the residents of the city of Panaji. Surely the corollary of bottoms up development and indeed bottoms up agitation is that the residents of Panaji, many of whom are members of the core committee of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan, have as much of obligation to bachao Panaji and for that matter Taleigao as they have to bachao Agonda and Raia and Saligao and Siolim.

HOBSON’S CHOICE

IT is not as though there is a dearth of good candidates who can contest the forthcoming elections to the CCP. Surely, a Victor Albuquerque, who was keen on contesting the assembly elections, should consider contesting the CCP elections so that the city that has been his home is not left to the mercy of the destroyer Manohar Parrikar and his creation, the Monster Rat. Surely Dinar Tarcar, who was willing to take on Manohar Parrikar in the last general elections, should be willing to take on the Monster Rat’s goons in the elections to the CCP. Surely Aravind Bhatikar and Annand Madgavkar and Sabina Martins and Satish Sonak, whose hearts bleed for the whole of Goa should, be willing to shed a drop of blood if necessary to save Panaji from the destroyers and the looters and the plunders. Surely Dr Oscar Rebello, who so valiantly attends to heal all the wounds inflicted on Goa by politicians, should be equally concerned about the fate of the CCP, which is terminally ill and is direly in need of respiratory support.

MONEY POWER

The argument will be advanced that with Babush Monserrate and Manohar Parrikar having unlimited funds or able to mobilise unlimited funds independent candidates do not have any chance even in the CCP elections, let alone elections to the Legislative Assembly of Goa or to Parliament. But surely there are enough crorepatis in Panaji who can fund honest and independent candidates to neutralise the money power and the muscle power of the Creator and his Creation. If Nana Bandekar can do it in Vasco, surely Srinivas Dempo and Audhut Timblo and Anil Counte and Victor Albuquerque and all the other crorepatis can ensure that deserving candidates do not loose for want of adequate funds. Surely someone like Nitin Kunkolienkar, whose heart bleeds for Goa and for the unemployed of Goa and who is horrified over the conditions in the EDC run Patto complex and once considered contesting elections from Margao, should be taking the initiative in forming a Panaji, first on the lines of Bombay, will extend the fullest support to credible and honest candidates contesting the CCP elections.

It is not too late and if all us wake up and smell the coffee and commit ourselves to a better and more efficient and more honest CCP in the forthcoming municipal elections scheduled for March, we can do it. We can put together a dream team of councillors for the Corporation of the City of Panaji, possibly headed by Edgar Ribeiro, the architect of the draft RP 2021, one of the most visionary documents on Town Planning that has ever been conceived. Imagine a CCP with socially committed activists like Aravind Bhatikar, Annand Madgavkar, Sabina Martins, Satish Sonak, Reboni Saha, Adv Joseph Vaz, educational administrator, Suhas Sardesain doctors like Oscar Rebello and old faithfuls like Patricia Pinto. Surely the residents and the voters of Panaji deserve better than the creator or destroyer of Panaji, Manohar Parrikar, and the plunderer of Goa, Babush Monserrate. In a democracy, you get the government that you vote for. None of us who live in the city of Panaji and are registered voters of the CCP will have any right to grumble if the same crooks and the rascals and the rogues and the looters and the plunderers secure control over the CCP yet again. Utt Panjikar. This is your moment of destiny.