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The Margao that is…
Valmiki Faleiro
I shall open
this column on the place I was born, bred and now based in. Margao. The
latest is the funny result at the municipal polls. Round two – election of
Chairperson and Vice – was even more curious.
Despite the best efforts of my two ‘Manohar’ friends, Parrikar and
Azgaonkar, the BJP bagged just 8 of the 20 seats but, thanks to rising
aspirations of congressman Vijay Sardesai in Fatorda, the top two posts
too !
Which certainly is not, as claimed by some, a sign of friend (and former
fellow Councillor) Digambar Kamat losing political ground on his home
turf. For one, voter considerations at local and State elections are
entirely different.
And I sure (still) have an ear to the ground. Digambar is firmly
entrenched in his Margao seat. For a very simple reason : In his 10 years
as Margao MLA, Digambar has stewarded far more tangible development than
all his predecessors put together – Anna Sarmalkar, Babu Naik and Uday
Bhembre – during their 31 combined years in office.
Of course, each in the preceding triumvirate contributed – and
significantly – to the destiny and recent history of Goa. Anna Sarmalkar
(also the first elected Municipal President of Margao) will be remembered
for his role in the Opinion Poll – which prevented Goa’s becoming a sure
back-taluka of neighbouring Sindhudurg. Babu Naik for planning the end of
the 16-year MGP reign in 1979 (Dr. Willy may dispute this, but I am on
first hand knowledge.) And the soft-spoken but erudite Uday Bhembre, for
his role both in the Opinion Poll and the struggle for Konkani as the
State Language.
Let us also not forget that none of the three (except Babu Naik, albeit
briefly) occupied the Treasury benches. In Goa’s then bi-polar politics,
either in the ruling MGP or in the perennial opposition UGP, and never
crossed sides, it wasn’t easy to garner any significant share of the
budget for the constituency’s development.
But Digambar, the present in that distinguished lineage, inspite of his
unprecedented development, paid the price for what voters perceived as
arrogance : he “challenged” the sitting BJP chairperson, Kamalini
Painguinkar, to win without his support. She won.
A mere four months before, Digambar had recaptured Margao with a margin of
5,000 votes – from 13,000 cast. Results of civic polls are certainly no
reflection on the standing of the MLA.
Margao results are bound to churn tamasha in the days to come. In any
event, municipalities in Goa are mere toothless giants… (and what can
Councillors do but play power games?) …as I discovered 20 years ago. Then,
as now, the State Government did everything to undermine local bodies.
The State Government, then headed by the self-same Chief Minister, handed
over the new market project to the SGPDA, the new bus stand to the KTC and
sewage to the PWD. At a seminar to mark a jubilee of local daily
Rashtramat, I jokingly observed that Pratapsing Rane could as well hand
over the municipal garden to the Forest Dept., roads and municipal
vehicles to the PWD, street lighting to the Electricity Dept., municipal
library to the Education Dept., sopo and taxation to the Dy. Collector,
sanitation and garbage to the Health Dept. and the historic Margao
municipal building to Archives & Museums. Was there a howl of protest!
Matka days are here again…
Circa the 1970s, there was this kingpin of South Goa’s matka gambling.
During day, he operated out of a banana-selling kiosk in the old (and
existing) municipal market along Margao’s old (but no longer extant
Railway Station) road.
Come 8.00 p.m, save weekends, from a rented office at a stone’s throw from
the South Police HQ, our good ole’ daytime banana vendor telephonically
received from Mumbai the legendary Rattan Khatri’s matka “Opening Number”
(and a few hours later, the “Closing.”)
And this in the epoch when Trunk Telephone could be connected only
manually by an eavesdropping operator at the Telephone Exchange. Yet, the
Goa Police, which routinely hauled up small fry to shore up statistics,
could never ever lay their hands on the big shark…
In 1985, the big shark got elected Municipal Councillor in Margao. The
immediate backlash: South Goa cops could no longer and unilaterally raise
monthly haftas and instant bonuses for the saib’s birthday bash from matka
bookies. The latest Margao verdict surely dims prospects for the men in
uniform:
The recent verdict has spewed no less than FIVE matka guns as Margao City
Fathers. On both sides of the Congress / BJP divide. Including one from
the sacrosanct ward and my home turf, the area around the Holy Spirit
Church – despite its outspoken denizens. Aha!
submitted to
TGF by the author on Nov
30, 2005
[Valmiki
Faleiro
is a Margao based businessman who earlier
worked as Staff Reporter for the erstwhile WEST COAST TIMES and later as
Goa Correspondent with Mumbai's FREE PRESS JOURNAL Group, and the INDIAN
EXPRESS newspaper. He served as the President of the Margao
Municipality from 1985 to 1987. He has indicated that he hopes to return
to full-time writing, with a special interest on certain aspects of Goan
history.]
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