If RP 2011 was a deal, what about RP 2021
Do we need any further confirmation of what the whole of Goa knew but were afraid to know more? The Town and Country Planning department in 2006, was essentially a shopping mall for land conversions from agricultural and orchard to settlement for a huge price paid to ‘authorised” middlemen and brokers who were conduits to the then Town and Country Planning Minister Babush Monseratte.
The Income Tax Assessment of N Suryanarayana, a former bureaucrat, has ripped apart the shady nexus between Surayanarayana, his cronies, two middlemen who –obviously- are in the real estate business, and finally Babush Monseratte himself. The detailed modus operandi is outlined in our front page story today. What this nexus did was arrange to convert large tracts of land to settlement areas. To do this money changed hands not just between the Suryanarayana syndicate and Babush Monseratte through the middlemen but in numerous other cases, which made the Regional Plan 2011 diseased.
This begs the question. These bribes were paid to convert plots in 2011. This couldn’t be done because the plan was scrapped and Babush was divested of the TCP portfolio, which he has been struggling to get back. The people of Goa need to know immediately if those plots were converted in the Regional Plan 2021. If they were, there should be an immediate investigation into who pushed for those conversions, and if the same forces are at work again.
The income tax assessment has done more than expose Monseratte’s presence at the end of the long organised conversion kickback chain. It has finally removed shades of grey from the black and white reality that the Regional Plan exercise, at the end of the day has an element of “you pay we colour”, a reference to the colours on the map marking settlement. So if this happened in 2011, where is the proof that it did not happen in RP-2021? Often the truth is not just in the files but in informed chatter. To find if a bribe has been given, do not go to the bribe taker but the bribe giver. Beneficiaries sometimes brag and as time goes by, there are more voices, albeit in loose conversation, of people who have “got things done” in RP-2021 as well. While Monseratte needs to account for and pay for his ill gotten huge wealth, can we say with certainty that there are no other Monseratte’s in the Town and Country Planning department today?
On another note, all issues concerning land are solved and settled by an intricate network which includes the government, builders and middlemen. Any builder before initiating a project knows how this system works and bribes are built into the project cost as an expense centre as important as labour or material. There is a well oiled machinery which functions equally well in the black market and the white market. The system collects and routes money through different front companies and sometimes though banking channels. And most importantly the hawala network plays a big role. No arm of the income tax will be able to reach a foolproof hawala network used by Goa builders in Dubai and other countries.
This is hard business. An expose of the current nature is all but temporary. The amounts made actually are far higher. Every time something like this is allowed to pass and the guilty set free, another middlemen waits at the street corner to get kickbacks for a land deal.
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people’s edit
Misuse of liquor
Rui da Gama
The Excise Department’s action after the Code of Conduct imposed due to the forthcoming Asembly Elections has resulted in the unearthing of large quantity of unauthorized liquor being circulated in Goa. Since Goa is known for excessive liquor consumption, we wish the Excise Department functioned the same way throughout the five year term of the Goa Assembly. Excessive circulation and consumption of liquor during the period of Elections, has a direct impact on voters’ election decisions. Election workers are misused, being lured by liquor. Even otherwise, excessive circulation of liquor, is a clear sign of the rate of liquor consumption. It is not surprising therefore that the percentage of alcoholics are on the rise in Goa. Many candidates wanting to win the elections know the Goans’ weakness for liquor. Social drinking does not mean everyday drinking liquor. Compulsive , daily drinking of liquor leads to alcoholism. The Goa Medical College will ascertain that more than 30 percent of the deaths in Goa are alcohol related. The Institute of Psychiatry & Human Behavior will also confirm the number of alcohol related mental patients in Goa. Alcoholism affects family life and leads to broken homes. In this scenario, the adult children of alcoholics do not know what normal behavior is all about. An alcoholic family up bringing, creates emotional dysfunction in children. Many children of alcoholic parents, later take up to drugs, fall prey to depression, anti-social behavior, false relationship, sexual abuse, thoughts of suicides, etc. It is easy to serve liquor and buy voters. The distribution of liquor during elections has serious consequences for the future of the State. People who are habitual daily drinkers can be easy misused. They will do anything for a free drink. Mahatma Gandhi had once said that, where one door opens for a tavern or Bar, their back door will open to prostitution. Alcohol when consumed in excess, leads to drug addiction. Liquor is a liquid form of drug. As drinking liquor is socially accepted, some drug addicts give up the hard form of drugs and begin consuming liquor. After the formation of Asha Bhavan-the first Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Goa over two decades ago, many alcohol self help groups have been set up around Goa. However, Goa’s leaders have been issuing a number of bar licenses for sale of liquor rather than curbing the menace of compulsive drinking.
Crores of rupees worth illegal unlicensed liquor is also being sold in Goa. All elders, spiritual / religious leaders, senior citizens, parents and teachers have a moral duty to voice their concern on the consumption and sale of liquor in Goa. We need to educate our younger generation by example of ourselves by not drinking or giving up our liquor drinking habit before it is too late.
