The issue of maggot-infested rice being supplied to fair price shops (FPS) under the public distribution system (PDS) is far from dying out and the recent expose by the O Heraldo on Wednesday is just another proof of the ordeal of the low-income ration cardholders dependent on government support. However, the failure of the Civil Supplies Minister to acknowledge that the problem continues to persist and the people suffer is appalling.
The government is also in denial mode regarding the alleged ‘scam’ in the Excise Department which has been indicated in the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report highlighting the revenue losses incurred by the department. The Chief Minister has said that the losses highlighted in the CAG report are notional.
Last week, the government rejected the Centre’s numbers about the presence of tigers in the State. In a reply in the Rajya Sabha, the Union Environment Minister informed that Goa has the presence of five tigers, however, the State government has persistently stated that ‘there are no resident tigers in Goa’. Based on its claim, the State government rejected the declaration of the Mhadei Tiger Reserve.
Last November, the apex public policy think-tank of the Government of India, Niti Aayog, put into public domain statistics of unemployment, only to be denied and disputed by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant within days. The Niti Aayog, in its report, had revealed that around 1.10 lakh are unemployed in the State, however, the Chief Minister disputed the figures and claimed that only 20,000 are actually unemployed. He reiterated his stand during the ongoing monsoon session of the Legislative Assembly. Goa’s unemployment in September last year according to data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) stood at 10.9%, almost 70% higher than the national average, which rose to 15.91% by the end of March this year.
The CM was also in denial mode about the sorry state of education, especially the students’ performance in mathematics and science at the school level. He then blamed the teachers and claimed that some of them were engaged in secondary income sources by neglecting their teaching duties. However, the Niti Aayog pointed out that the student-teacher ratio across all the levels of school education in Goa has remained much below the national average. The teacher-pupil ratio for mathematics is 1:58, while for science is 1:42, and for social sciences it is 1:91.
PWD has been facing an acute shortage of engineers and the minister confessed that the department is (mal)functioning with less than 50% of the actual sanctioned staff strength. The same is the case with other departments, especially the Police and the Electricity Department, which point out that the government has failed to carry out recruitment.
In addition to rejecting the numbers, the present government has been adamant that there has been no failure in governance despite the suffering faced by Goans during the two months of monsoon so far. The Smart City project of Panjim proved a total failure and despite the warnings that the capital city will be inundated due to the poor and substandard works under the Smart City project, the government decided to continue the works. The roof collapse of the open-air auditorium of Kala Academy proved to be yet another example of government failure to acknowledge a systemic breakdown.
By refusing to acknowledge the statistics, especially when they have been reported by the government bodies of the Centre, the Goa government is avoiding accountability to the people of the State. The government has more than a two-thirds majority in the Goa Legislative Assembly, but that does not provide immunity from accountability to the citizens. After all, in a welfare state, the buck stops at the government.
