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ILLEGAL HOMES BEING REGULARISED!
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ILLEGAL HOMES BEING REGULARISED!

Aug 09-Aug 15, 2025, Stray Thoughts August 8, 2025 , by

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when as many as a thousand qualified nurses queued up for 100 jobs as contract nurses at the Department of Health Services at Campal promenade. For a Saturday following the week when the government or more precisely the Minister for Revenue, was in a hurry to legalize illegal structures. For a Saturday following the week when the Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai, raised the issue of discrimination against Goans by the ESG, which organizes the Goa State Film Festival. For a Saturday following the week when intensive revision of electoral rolls of Bihar went on.

GOVT JOBS
 AND a few stray thoughts on as many as a 1,000 qualified nurses queued up for 100 jobs for contract nurses in the health department. The desperate job seekers stood outside the Department of Health Services from 6am in the morning for the walk-in interview, which started at 10.30 am on August 4. All the nurses standing in queue have a graduate degree in nursing from the Government Nursing College and perhaps other private nursing colleges in the State.
Not all of them were unemployed. Many of them are working in private nursing homes or even in the big private hospitals like Manipal and Healthway. They lined up for jobs on a yearly contract basis with the Department of Health Services. With no guarantee of being made permanent.
Apparently, even a contract job with the government offers better salary and working conditions than jobs in private hospitals and nursing homes. The monthly package even for trained nurses in the private sector is between Rs10,000 and Rs15,000. We understand that even contract nurses with the government earn up to Rs40,000 per month. They are also entitled to other benefits like a weekly day off, a uniform washing allowance, and free medical care in the Goa Medical College & Hospital and other government facilities.
Only those who came early enough to take the tokens could appear for the interview. It is reported that half the candidates had to return because they couldn’t get the tokens for entry in the health services department building at Campal promenade where the interviews were taken.
This exposes the poor salaries and working conditions in private hospitals and nursing homes in Goa. A nursing course is not cheap and can cost up to Rs2 lakh a year. The government stopped recruiting nurses on a permanent basis more than five years ago. Goans are still desperate for government jobs, even if it is on a contract basis, because of the hope that they will be made permanent at some stage. There is no absolute shortage of jobs in Goa but the private sector’s salaries are pathetic, particularly for the white collar jobs. Which is why the alternative, particularly for nurses, is to find very high-paying jobs abroad.

BABUSH IN A HURRY
AND a few stray thoughts on the government, or more precisely, the Minister for Revenue Atanasio Babush Monserrate, being in a hurry to legalize illegal structures. A large number of illegal structures have come up in all the urban and industrial areas. These are built by Goans to be rented out to migrant families for Rs5,000 per month or more. These migrants have become the vote bank of politicians. Babush and wife Jennifer Monserrate depend on their large migrant vote banks in Panaji and Taleigao.
Similarly, former chief minister of Goa, Digambar Kamat, is totally dependent on the Muslim vote bank in Moti Dogor. This is also true of the ruling party MLAs in Vasco taluka with elections coming up in 2027, the MLAs and ministers are anxious to fulfill their promises to their migrant voters.
Not surprisingly, the ongoing Legislative Assembly passed the bill to regularize illegal structures on government land unanimously. A second bill to regularize illegal structures on communidade land has also been cleared in the LA. Though in theory, only structures which have come up prior to 1972 are to be regularized, no doubt through the back door even structures built last year in 2024 will get regularized.
We presume that there should be no objection to the regularization of illegal structures for self-occupation. But the government should not encourage the legalization of illegal structures built or renting out to migrant settlers. It, however, could be argued that the law should be applied equally to all illegal structures. Interestingly, the government which has been going on a demolition drive against illegal structures within the CRZ, has delayed action against the huge bungalow built by former MLA Pandurang Madkaikar within the heritage zone in Old Goa. It is one law for the people and another for the government.

SARDESAI RAISES DISCRIMINATION ISSUE
AND a few stray thoughts on the Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai raising the issue of discrimination against Goans by the ESG which organizes the Goa State Film Festival. Vijai, shockingly disclosed that the existing eligibility criteria provided for 85% participation by non-Goans and only 15% for Goans. In any case, the ESG, at least under Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, is more interested in promoting the Marathi Film Festival than the Goan Film Festival.
Any film festival promoted officially by the Goa government should only support films made by Goan filmmakers in Goa so that local talent gets a boost. Over the 20-plus years that Goa has played host to IFFI, a number of Goans have ventured into producing and directing both Konkani and Marathi films. Goan film producers have to make Marathi films because of the market for Konkani films not big large enough to make them viable.
There are many talented Goan actresses like Prashanti Talpankar and Meenacshi Martins who act both in Marathi and Konkani films. The government should reverse the eligibility criteria to facilitate 85% participation from Goans and only 15% from non-Goans.

REVISION OF ELECTORAL ROLLS
AND a few stray thoughts on intensive revision of the electoral rolls of Bihar. It is now being revealed that over five crore voters registered in Bihar could not be found at their place of residence listed in their voter registration numbers. Which effectively means that there are five crore Bihari voters who have migrated to different parts of the country in search of jobs. Contrary to the perception that the majority of migrants have relocated to big metro cities like Bombay and Kolkata, apparently a large number of Biharis are working in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Goa also has a large Bihari migrant workforce. It may be recalled that Bihar Day was celebrated in Goa last year. The Election Commission is reportedly considering transferring the votes of Biharis living in Tamil Nadu to the voters’ list in that state. This is, of course, being violently opposed by the ruling DMK party as it will pose a threat to the Tamil identity. However, it must be recognized that migration is a part of the country’s ground reality. It makes no sense to expect voters to go back to their state of origin only to cast their votes.

KARNATAKA LAND IN GOA
AND a few stray thoughts on the government of Karnataka acquiring land in Goa to set up a Karnataka Bhavan. This is perhaps the first time a cultural centre with a hostel is being set up by another state of India. Admittedly, there is a Goa Bhavan in Mumbai for the benefit of a large number of Goans travelling to the commercial capital for business or even specialized medical treatment. The Goa Bhavan in Juhu in Mumbai is very popular among Goans visiting Mumbai.
Every state in the country, of course, has a state bhavan in national capital, Delhi. I have myself spend several pleasant business trips at the Goa Sadan in Delhi.
However, the decision of the Karnataka government to create a Karnataka Bhavan in Goa is a little disturbing. Already our relationship with Karnataka is strained because of the diversion of the Mhadei river headwaters.
Admittedly, there are a large number of Kannadigas who have been settled in Goa for at least three generations. This ranges from government servants, particularly employees in the PWD and the Electricity Department, who were recruited before Goa became a state. A large number of Muslim migrants from Karnataka have also been living in Goa for over two decades.
But there is no need to promote Kannadiga culture in Goa. Migrants who have relocated in Goa, whether they are from Karnataka, Kerala or Bihar, should integrate with the local native population and adopt the cultural traditions of Goa.

GOA HARVEST FESTIVALS
AND a few stray thoughts on harvest festivals in Goa. With the rains on their way out, hopefully the harvest season in Goa will begin soon starting Independence Day on August 15. The people of Taleigao have traditionally enjoyed the honor of holding the first harvest by virtue of their support to the then Portuguese regime when there were forced to camp out at sea by the Adil Shah army.
The story in Goa’s colonial history in 1510 goes that Sultan Adil Shah’s army attacked the Goan garrison in Panaji in an attempt to take back areas conquered by the Portuguese army. The Portuguese army was forced to withdraw to their ships which had brought them from Cochin to Goa. It is believed that the newly converted residents of Taleigao village supplied basic necessities like rice and vegetable to the Portuguese soldiers on their ships during the monsoon season when a sand bar prevented ships from leaving Goa. In gratitude the then Portuguese governor of Goa granted the privilege of the first harvest to Taleigao. Even now the first sheaves are taken in a ceremonial procession to the Raj Bhavan.
Among the other very prominent harvest festivals is the Konsachem fest celebrated in the village of Raia, which coincides with the feast of Our Lady of Snows. The festival in Raia as in the case of Taleigao marks the cutting of the first paddy harvest. It is claimed that the festival dates back to 1699 when the church was built by the Gaonkars of Raia and Camurlim. In fact, the staff and students of the Rachol Seminary located in Raia actively participate in the Konsachem fest. Indeed, the Auxiliary Bishop Simiao Purification Fernandes, who was teaching in the Rachol Seminary, also participated in the harvesting last year. A fragrant broth is offered as “prasad” to all devotees during the harvest festival.
Unfortunately, with massive conversion of agriculture land, there are now very few fields left in Goa. This is ironically true also of Taleigao which is also becoming a concrete jungle like capital city Panjim.

SOLICITOR GENERAL OF OHIO!
AND a last stray thought on an Indian origin lawyer, Mathura Sridharan, being appointed as the solicitor general of Ohio state in the United States. Despite his war against Indian migrants President Donald Trump has hired a large number of people of Indian origin to head important US departments.
In fact, for the first time the FBI in the United States is headed by an American Indian who originally hails from Gujarat, Kash Patel. Apparently, there is a revolt among Trump supporters to the choice of the Indian origin lawyer as the state solicitor general. Most of the objections come over the fact that Mathura Sridharan still wears the Indian dot of the “bindi.”

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