Nisser Dias The BJP government in Goa seems to have finally realized that it has got the State into a financial mess by its policies, unrealistic priorities and populist schemes. The architect for the mess has dusted his hands off and went of to Delhi leaving his hand-picked colleague Laxmikant Parsekar to sort out the financial mismanagement as his successor to the post of chief minister. Parsekar has his job cut-out and he began by withdrawing VAT on petrol. Last week his government circulated a note urging government departments to curb non-plan expenses by 20 percent as a part of austerity exercise to shore-up and save financial resources. Ironically ministers in the BJP led government seem to be a pampered lot as they have been allowed all the luxuries. They can roam around the State in fuel guzzling cars; they are allowed to fly around the globe Club Class. And surprisingly while on 8th January this year it banned all foreign tours till June, the very next day Tourism minister and his babus had the audacity to announce that they are preparing and packing to fly to Spain for an International Tourism Trade show in Madrid to ‘scientifically study’ tourism markets in different countries. Through this statement are they trying to tell us that the jaunts they have taken for the last three years during the BJP rule were only vacations at the exchequers’ cost? If chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar wants to enforce austerity measures to save precious public funds than he should start at the top and not at the bottom. He should first ban the ‘Scientific Study’ as it would save the State a few crores. This will also sent a message to other ministers that the chief minister is serious in trying to improve the financial health of the state. But first and foremost government should ban purchase of all foreign cars for its departments, Corporations, autonomous bodies and also Municipal Corporation, Councils and Zilla panchayats. Ministers should be allotted only Indian made cars like Tata or Maruti maybe a Tata Zest or Maruti SX4. Government should also ban ministers using the ‘beacon’ on their personal high-end vehicles. There should be uniformity in government’s policy. It reminds me of 2002 when Manohar Parrikar took over as chief minister for the first time. He made it a rule to allow purchase of only Maruti Esteem cars for ministers. Of at that time Parrikar functioned as more of an administrator rather than a politician, this time round it was just the opposite. However ministers in his cabinet like Babush Monserrate, Mickky Pacheco used the beacon on their personal vehicles. Hence what happened was chief minister Parrikar travelled in Maruti Esteem while many of his cabinet colleagues zoomed about in Mercedes and imported Chevy. Incidentally in 2012 when Parrikar again took reigns of the state as chief minister he bought himself an expensive foreign SUV as his official vehicle even when the state resources had shown signs of dipping due to stoppage of mining. Many of government corporation managing directors are using high-end foreign cars even though their corporations are incurring huge losses. Municipal Council chairpersons again are using expensive foreign cars even though the Councils’ finances are not in the pink of health. And in some case the chairpersons do not even own personal cars but as chairperson they get to move around in foreign cars at the expense of public money. Superintendent of Police are using the latest Maruti sedan the Ciaz who price is more than Rs. 11 lakhs. It does not end there. Though the official care are to be used for official purposes only, its usage is also abused. Ministers, Council chairpersons, babus and department heads use the official car to drive their wives to market to buy groceries, drop and pick children to and from school, tuitions etc. In some case drivers of the official cars are allowed to take the car home after dropping the minister or Chairperson to their residences. It is an open secret that minister and other elected representatives misuse their official capacity and abuse exchequers’ money in various ways. If at all chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar was really serious of adopting austerity measures he should have taken a leaf from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s book. When Modi formed his cabinet – requests to refurbish and renovate official bungalows came pouring in. He flatly refused to sanction any funds for the same and asked his ministers to either continue working for the people and the country in the same premises or resign. At the moment chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar austerity measures sounds more like a publicity statement. If he was serious about it Tourism department officials would not have had the guts to challenge chief minister’s authority by declaring to the media that this very month on 28th January they would be visiting Madrid in Spain to boost tourism in Goa.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 10:44:53 +0000
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