In a remarkable display of candour, a Legislature Committee – the Ad hoc Committee on Finance – has given a very accurate picture of a number of the government’s pet projects and severely embarrassed the government on a few other issues. Calangute Congress MLA Agnelo Fernandes, who headed the panel, must be congratulated on his committee’s accurate perceptions. It is committees like this – which comprise MLAs from most of the leading parties in the Legislative Assembly and, therefore, do not tend to exactly toe the line of the government – that reveal the real strength of a democracy and the wisdom of creating a balance of power between the three pillars of the state; the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
In its report submitted to the Assembly today, the Ad hoc Committee on Finance has asked the government to rethink the Dona Paula-Vasco Sea Link project. “The committee is of the opinion that the project would be a white elephant on the economy of the state,” the report states, urging a complete rethink of the project. Without mincing words, the report says it is a mindless project with a provision of Rs100 crore just for appointment of consultants in the year 2009-10, which has resulted in blocking of a huge amount of funds for no reason, which could have been put to use for other, more tangible developmental activities. It goes on to say: “The committee is also of the opinion that the sea link project may not benefit a small state like Goa. The committee therefore recommends to the government to avoid such huge unnecessary provisions in budget estimates in future.” How’s that for high thinking and plain speaking?
The Ad hoc Committee on Finance has also expressed serious concern about the increasing debts of the state, and suggested that the Goa government needs to implement new measures urgently to increase the state’s revenue. “The committee is of the opinion that though the government has succeeded in implementing the recommendations of the VI Pay Commission to the [government] employees, it has come at a high price,” the report says. It also points out that most government departments have not followed any austerity measures and rather, indulged in reckless expenditure, increasing the government’s liabilities, for which there are no alternatives other than borrowing money from the open market. While the government should be implementing new measures to increase its revenue in order to reduce the debt burden, it points out that on the contrary, the government has failed completely to implement the various revenue earning schemes like professional tax, mining rejects tax and state entry tax, which it declared with great fanfare in the State Budget. These, it says, have regrettably “remained only on paper”. If the government does not become serious about the high rate of debt (which is increasing day by day), it may lead Goa into a debt trap, the report warns.
The committee’s report goes on to castigate the Goa Excise Department, which it says has not booked even a single narcotics-related case in the last four years, despite having a designated cell to tackle the drug trade. “The cell is not functional for the last several years, as a result of which drug peddlers have got a golden opportunity to establish their trade in Goa, which has connections with foreign drug peddlers, specifically along the coastal belt,” Committee Chairman Agnelo Fernandes said in his summary of the report. The committee has also noted that the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) in the Police Department is not functioning properly, causing the public to lose faith in the police. It goes on to recommend starting of a full-fledged cell to curb the narcotics trade in Goa.
Nothing could be more frank or straightforward than that. But is the government listening?
