JNNURM was to improve the life of citizens of the concerned State, not tourists. But in Goa, it has been used to underwrite buses to ferry tourists from the airport! As privileged is crorepati MLA Pratapsing Rane, who declared assets of Rs 50 crores in 2017, but availed of a house and car loan of Rs 45 lakh. Also entitled is Mauvin Godinho who has at least five cars in his garage and property everywhere but took loans of Rs 45 lakhs. And bought a Rs 10 lakh Ducati at the ripe old age of 56!
August 29, 2019
Lionel Messias
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was a modernisation scheme launched by ex-PM Manmohan Singh in 2005 to improve both the quality of life and infrastructure in India’s cities. According to its website, it was meant primarily to upgrade social and economic infrastructure in cities, provide basic services to the urban poor, including wide-ranging urban sector reforms to strengthen municipal governance. Period. The key words here being improving the life of citizens of the concerned State, not tourists. However, your government has been using buses obtained under the scheme to ferry tourists at rock bottom rates from Dabolim airport to Calangute for example, at a miserly Rs 150 per person. Till vehicular restrictions on the Zuari bridge were imposed, your supposedly public-oriented bus service Kadamba Transportation Corporation, was using Volvo-made buses each costing between Rs 8,8,50,000 to Rs 11,50,000 according to Volvo’s 2019 price list. But then, the tourist has always been privileged over us plebs.
At the privileged altar
But not so privileged as your peoples’ representatives are. A Herald RTI revealed recently that millionaire MLA Pratapsing Rane availed of two loans, a Rs 30,00,000 house loan, and a Rs 15,00,000 car loan. Both amounts are the maximum an MLA is entitled to. Now, anyone who’s been to his sprawling mansion at Sanquelim would also have seen more cars than family members. I had the privilege (!) of being taken on a tour of his property a long time ago, so I know what I am talking about. And yes, this is the same politician who rather nastily said Goans went to London to clean toilets, in the sacrosanct Legislative Assembly; where if you said something half as nasty, you can be slapped with a privilege motion.
Yes, the same man who has been availing of your tax-paid benefits for more like five decades because 2022 marks 50 years since Rane became an MLA; who in 2017 declared assets of Rs 50,00,16,663, up from Rs 25.87 crore in 2012, and Rs 9,57,12,964 in 2007 according to the website myneta.info. His wife Vijayadevi and son Vishwajit own a company called Karapur Estates Pvt. Ltd. Interestingly Rane also owns 43,968 shares in Reliance Power Ltd and 4,99,271 shares in Sesa Goa Ltd.
Brothers in Arms
Another privileged MLA Mauvin Godinho who availed of the house loan of Rs 30,00,000 and a car loan of Rs 14,49,541; declared his assets as Rs 7,96,29,474 in 2012. Yet according to the same website he bought a Hyundai I 20 in 2009 for Rs 6,50,00; an Outlander (2011) for Rs 21,49,500; a Volkswagen Polo (2012) for Rs 6,54,716; a BMW Xi sDrive20d (2013) for Rs 35,00,000; a Hyundai Creta Sx (2016) for Rs 16,6,343; and at the ripe old age of 56 years, a Ducati Scrambler motorbike (2016) for Rs 10,39,445.
Many years ago in an RTI response I had in Lion Roars which appeared in Goanspirit in 2013 (http://goanspirit.com/mayday-mayday-mayday) referred to how Wilson Godinho, Mauvin’s brother, had purchased the following properties at Mopa.
April 5, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Wides Property Holding, cost of land purchased Rs 1,80,00,000; April 12, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Wides Property Holding, Panjim, Rs 65,30,000; April 13, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Wides Property Holding, Panjim, Rs 15,00,000; April 13, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Wides Property Holding, Rs 45,30,000; April 23, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Wides Property Holding, Panjim, Rs 23,31,000; April 23, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Wides Property Holding, Panjim, Rs 39,97,000; April 23, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Wides Property Holding, Panjim, Rs 28,38,000; June 11, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Wides Property Holding, Panjim, Rs 28,38,000; June 26, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 1,66,00,000; July 18, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 13,00,000; September 14, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 26,33,000; September 14, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 13,24,000; September 26, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 68,14,300; October 11, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 75,70,000; October 11, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 58,75,000; October 24, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 20,75,000; October 24, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 18,18,000; November 5, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 93,58,000; November 5, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem Rs 2,50,00,000; November 5, 2007: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 11,98,000; November 28, 2007: R A James Duderson, JM Township Real Estate, Rs 21,81,000.
February 27, 2008: March 25, 2008: Wilson Godinho, Rs 70,80,000; March 28, 2008: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 53,80,000; March 28, 2008: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 10,30,000; June 25, 2008: Wilson Godinho, Rs 15,00,000; July 4, 2008: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 5,87,000; July 11, 2008: Wilson Godinho, Caranzalem, Rs 99,00,000; August 4, 2008: JM Township & Real Estate; Wilson Godinho, Panjim, Rs 1,48,94,300; August 4, 2008: JM Township & Real Estate, Wilson Godinho, Panjim (no purchase price mentioned in the RTI); September 19, 2008: Wilson Godinho, Rs 4,67,920. Total spend: Rs 16,23,07,520 (does not include the August 4, 2008 sale). And there’s more to this.
What I was simply trying to state at that time was that Mopa was no longer the intended cargo hub, but a real estate hub for the political class and rich non-resident builders. The rest I leave to your imagination.
(To be continued)
