Close on the heels of our homegrown MLA Vijay Sardesai and GPCC President Luizinho Falerio extending support for the illegal hutments of Kannadigas, the Karnataka Minister R V Deshpande had the temerity of threatening to evict Goan techies from Bangalore. The senior Karnataka MLA cannot paint the two disparate issues with the same brush.
While Goan techies are highly qualified information technology professionals contributing immensely to the revenue of Karnataka and GDP of the country and reside in middle class localities paying legitimate dues to the state Exchequer, the Karnataka migrants are illegal settlers and free loaders who run dens of illegal trafficking and by virtue of their mass influx have been changing the demographic profile of the State of Goa. At every nook and corner of Goa you will come across a Gowda, Thimmaya or Apayya who have replaced D’Souza, Fernandes and D’Costa and it is these free loaders who are ably supported by our vote bank politicos. The migrants enjoy the benefits doled out by the State as they jump the queue to avail of state sponsored benefits at the cost of the local populace.
Needless to state that the pristine beauty and ecology of the State has to be protected at all costs for posterity as otherwise the State will lose its status of the heritage tag of a tourist State. The Central government too has to be blamed for the exponential rise in the migrant population dues to its refusal to accord special status for Goa in line with the north eastern states of the country.
The response of our chief minister to the outbursts of the Karnataka MLA is apt and befitting and may we add that these illegal squatters be shipped out across the unresolved Mhadei river upstream to their homeland.
Those uninitiated with history of Karnataka will do well to remember that Deshpandes’ in the erstwhile princely state of Karnataka under the Nizam of Hyderabad were tax collectors and bore the brunt of the general public as they were targets of boos and abuses due to their un-professional code of ethics.
