GOA IS CELEBRITY STATE!

No Comments

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week, as part of dynastic succession, Rohit Monserrate was appointed as the chairman of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority. For a Saturday following the week the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court slammed the Election Commission. For a Saturday following the week when Goa is losing its attraction as a tourism destination. For a Saturday following the week when the boutique resorts in Goa and all the famous celebrities who have a second home in Goa.

GAVASKAR JOINS TENDULKAR
AND a few stray thoughts on the boutique resorts in Goa and all the famous celebrities who have a second home in Goa. While it is widely known that Sachin Tendulkar has a house with a small cricket pitch in South Goa, it is not widely known that Sunil Gavaskar also has a house in Goa. Among the other film stars who have a Villa in Goa are Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Abhay Deol, Sameera Reddy, and Bhumika Pednekar. Salman Khan owns a lot of property in Goa but has been accused of violating CRZ rules. The fashion designer Ritu Beri has a home cum boutique cum restaurant in Succor. Among the boutique resort owners is Abhinandan Lodha who is putting up a huge project in Bicholim in partnership with Vishwajit Rane. Abhinandhan has two boutique hotels under the brand name of Miros. The other boutique hotel is Kaia by a Bombay party on the Ashwen beach in Goa.

ROHIT IS NOW NPDA BOSS
AND a few stray thoughts on when, as part of dynastic succession, Rohit Monserrate was appointed as the chairman of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority. The NPDA is in charge of recommending and approving land conversions and change of zone in the whole of North Goa, including Santa Cruz, Merces, Porvorim, Saligao, Aldona and Thivim. Antanasio Babush Monserrate was one of the first chairman of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority. It is not widely known that the Panchayat of Taleigao also has a separate planning and development authority. For some time, Michael Lobo was also the chairman of the NPDA. Till her sad demise, Jennifer Monserrate was a chairperson of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority. The baton has now been passed on to Rohit Monserrate, the son of the late Jennifer and Babush Monserrate. Panaji and Taleigao have been controlled by the Monserrate family for over two decades if not more. In fact, Taleigao, which was part of the Panaji Municipality, was reverted to the status of a Panchayat on the insistence of Babush Monserrate.
Interestingly, Babush Monserrate has opposed the proposal to privatize the new Captain of Ports jetty. Babush is planning to get a ticket for the Taleigao assembly seat for Rohit Monserrate. I understand from former classmates and friends of Rohit Monserrate that he has sobered down a great deal from the days when he was accused of molesting a minor German girl. Apparently, he has become a born-again Catholic and attends Mass every morning. Rohit is also more democratic and listens to people instead of the family tradition of dadagiri
.
CHANGE IN ADDRESS
And a few stray thoughts on when the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court slammed the Election Commission. It has been revealed that six members of a family from Santa Cruz constituency has submitted Form 8 to notify about their change of address within the same constituency during the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls. The petitioner Paresh Salgaokar, told a division bench headed by Justice Valmiki Menezes that he and his family had submitted Form 8 during SIR after shifting their residence. In spite of submitting the prescribed Form 8 they found their names deleted from the electoral rolls. The chief election officer in the state shockingly confessed that the software installed by the election commission did not allow Form 8 to be processed during the special intensive revision. The family was later asked to fill Form 6 for inclusion as new voters which they refused to do. The High Court bench slammed the EC. The Bench asked the chief electoral officer why the Form 8 application used for change of address during the last 50 years had not been considered by the EC. The forms, moreover, had been filled within the stipulated time. “That’s a problem with your software. Can you imagine what will happen? How many voters will lose their votes like this? How can you insist on someone filling out Form 6, which is for new voters? Why do you have a special form only for change of residence?”
The HC told the EC that it could not override the existing rule. The ECI admitted that the system did not permit a name to be restored once it has been deleted. The Court commented that the whole country is facing this. You have to find a solution.

HIGH FARES, EXTORTIONATE CABS
AND a few stray thoughts on when how Goa is losing its attraction as a tourism destination. With the tourism season officially kicking off from the September 30th, airfares have shot out of the sky for the long weekend which include October 2 Gandhi Jayanti. A single flight ticket to return to Chennai from Goa on Sunday October 3, after the long weekend will cost Rs 18,400. You can instead go to Lanka or Thailand. This fare is higher than the rates if the peak of Christmas and New Year season. It will cost double the usual fare to fly into Goa and Chennai on Thursday ahead of the long weekend. A single one-way ticket to Goa was quoted at Rs 10,000. The fare from Bengaluru to Goa is Rs 9,400, Rs 10,800 from Ahmedabad; Rs 9000 from Pune and Rs 8000 plus from Mumbai.
Add to the misery of people going to Goa on a holiday they will have to face a bigger nightmare at the airport. The minimum taxi fare has been increased to Rs46per km. There is a special rate for tourist taxis, which is higher than black and white taxis. There will be a 50% sub-charge if you are only dropped from the airport to a hotel or home stay. If you hire a taxi in Panaji and ask him to go to Santa Cruz you will have to pay 50% extra as a charge of going out a municipal area. The charge for waiting is Rs500 per hour. There is a night charge between 9pm to 5am of 35% above the so called meter rate.
In any case there are no meters in Goa. Tara who is now in Mumbai can afford to move around in taxis and auto-rickshaws at half the rate prevailing in Goa. Passenger should avoid Mopa because they have to cross the elevated Porvorim corridor and negotiate Merces Circle to reach Panaji. Interestingly, the Mopa airport is not a shortcut to the beaches in Candolim and Baga as there is no direct access even to the Morjim beach. Passengers arriving at Mopa will have to travel 100km plus to reach their tourism destination in South Goa.

GERARD ARUNDHATI FIRST HUBBY
AND a last stray thought on when catching up with Arundhati Roy’s mother Mary came to me. Mother Mary is not a reference to the Virgin Mary but to her real-life mother, Mary Roy. Mary Roy was a famous personality in her own right as she built a unique modern school in Kottayam in Kerala more than five decades ago. In addition, Mary Roy fought a long legal battle to secure equal rights for women in ancestral property in Goa. It is not widely known that Arundhati Roy met her heartthrob Gerard da Cunha, the Porvorim-based architect. When she was 15, and Gerard was working as an intern with the famous mud architect Lory Baker. Arundhati Roy did not start her life as a writer. She enrolled in the Delhi School of Architecture, where she met Gerard again. She was a first-year student and Gerard was a final-year student. They became lovers and were in a relationship for many years. According to Arundhati, they were forced to separate via Gerard’s obsessive mother, who used to insist on sleeping on the bed of the couple between the two of them.