This vacuum will then be filled by personnel imported (the norm in Goa) from outside Goa while the intended personnel from Goa are presumably trained. The charade was a scam with the objective of the IT park letting tax money flow where it has always flowed -into the pockets of the politician. The hillslide, bang opposite the Secretariat,should have been cleared in 3 months. But, 15 months after it fell (June 2007) nothing was done. The workforce and funds wasted boggles the mind.
October 7, 2008
Hot air about job creation
A very learned man (but must stay anonymous) said this: “There was a clarion call made by Dayanand Narvekar, the IT minister. about constructing an IT park with your tax money. But, is Goa really ready for this project? There is a lot of hot air generated about the abundance of jobs this will create.”
Point he made is: are Goans trained to handle this job profile? To that Narvekar had said they will be trained. Handy, but words only a fool would believe. Well then isn't it the better suggestion to train them first, than build the IT park? Why the park first? That essentially would mean we have an IT park with no skilled Goans to employ. This vacuum will then be filled by personnel imported (the norm in Goa) from outside Goa while the intended personnel from Goa are presumably trained. Another moot point he made was, when our Goan youth are eventually competent, what do we do with the original workforce? To his mind, the charade was a scam with the objective of letting tax money flow where it has always flowed -into the pockets of the politician.
PWD's mudslide
Here's another point to ponder on. I tried under RTI to get the cost of ridding the Porvorim landslide of all the mud and debris. Uncertain of which particular division (among the PWD's maze of divisions etc), I did the next best thing and filed on September 30 an RTI questionnaire with the Principal Chief Engineer, Altinho, Panjim. After being given the usual run around, I landed up at the desk of a woman with braided hair. She disdainfully shooed me away. Till the friendly male next to her intervened and accepted my application. My subsequent investigations revealed that the PWD has sneakily not appointed division-specific Public Information Officers (PIO). As a result, RTI applications are forwarded to a nodal officer, who may or may not then forward your application to the concerned PIO. All other ministries I have run into have clearly identifiable PIOs. The tourism department even has one each for south and north Goa.
In another land, the mess would have been cleared in a matter of three months, considering it was bang opposite the Secretariat, that hallowed seat of power. However, although the landslide occurred last June, till now they are still trying to remedy it. That is all of 15 months! The size of the workforce used and public funds wasted boggles the mind.
If it's Tuesday, this must be...
Let's go back to the fun of the joystick. Jayshree Raghuraman's flying costs to you between 18 April, 2002-12 July, 2005 was Rs 7,10,692. Apart from the Delhi routine she flew to France between 14-24 May, 2003 (cost Rs 1,65,116). BS Bhalla spent a huge Rs 10,29,720 flying in a rather short period of 14 November, 2002- 28 September, 2004. He seems to have gone on a world tour in 2003 taking in Berlin (Rs 1,01,145) and Toronto, Singapore, Hong Kong and the US (cost Rs 3,73,005). Vijay Madan spent Rs 5,29,627 of your hard money between 14 January, 2003-6 March, 2005 taking off to US/Canada twice and once to Lisbon incurring an expenditure of Rs 7,43,109. Dharmendra Sharma spent Rs 4,20,099 of his total expenditure of Rs 7,36,633 flying to Boston, US. There's more than several other IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers spent flying during their Goa tenures. And you thought travel writers had the best job on the Planet. How wrong!!
