On June 06, 2017 evening media broke the news that
Additional Collector Sabaji Shetye arrested by Anti-Corruption Bureau. He
allegedly demanded the bribe of Rs. 1.50 lakh but was paid Rs.25,000/- to
process N.O.C for explosive license. News spread like a wild fire across Goa
and beyond particularly because he was known to operate suspicious manner but
was never caught by authorities.
We know him from the time he was a deputy
Collector in Panjim. It was his court that Vanxim tenancy cases were heard for
the Condonation of delay to re-start the proceedings in 1995 cases. Sabaji
Shetye played this role in highly suspicious manner. Sabaji one by one went on
passing orders granting condonation of delay to benefit Mahendra Gaunekar and
Ozone corporate after the office of the Archbishop betrayed People of Vanxim by
selling island bunds and Paddy fields to Mahendra Gaunekar in highly secretive
manner.
We know the conduct of Sabaji Shetye in Ligorio Silveira v/s Mahendra Gaunekar case No: TNC/DYCL/APPL/74/2009. He granted condonation of delay even though he had no powers to do so. In
fact it was then Lawyer of Mahendra Gaunekar who is now a High Court Judge pointed out in Administrative Tribunal
President that the office of the Deputy Collector has no powers to grant
condonation of delay.
In this manner Sabaji Shetye has betrayed public. Now we
know that he has a habit of accepting bribe. It is plausible to conclude from
his conduct in Ligorio Silveira case, and other Vanxim cases that Sabaji Shetye has accepted
the favors in kind or cash to pass order granting condonation of delay favoring
Mahendra Gaunekar. This he did even without powers to do so. Powers lies with
Administrative Tribunal.
Now that Sabaji Shetye’s character is publicly exposed it is
a must that all his decisions be reviewed; for he played a role of tiny conduit
strip down Vanxim tenants of the legal titles by subjecting them to prolonged
litigations. It is based on Sabaji Shetye’s mischief that Vanxim people are
deprived of land titles of their land. The question is; how much money Sabaji
has taken from Mahendra Gaunekar or his agents in order to grant condonation of delay?
It is because of this situation that Vanxim has been
punished through inclusion under Investment Promotion Board. Board members led
by Manohar Parrikar, the Chief Minister of Goa are under what Giorgos Kallis
calls the spell of “Growth Curse”. Its
pretty evident that he is under the spell of Growth curse considering that he
doesn’t care for butchering of several hundreds of trees to expand highways
connecting Agassaim to Verna for a new Zuari bridge. Cortalim highway stretch
has witnessed mass cutting down of trees too. Earlier nearly 100 trees were cut
down to widen the road from Bambolim to Dona Paula via Goa University. Now,
additionally 900 trees are declared will be cut down to widen highway
connecting Cortalim to Vasco by Public Works Department (PWD) headed by
Minister Sudhin Dhavlekar. When there
are already tow functioning bridges over Mandovi there was no need to construct
the third one by wasting public financial resources.
Goa Government is sending its annual jaunts to Cannes in
France to learn as to how to go about organizing International Film Festival of
India (IFFI). How come it never came in the mind of Goa Government think tanks learn
lessons from Grenoble city in France that has replaced Bill boards with trees?
Why the nasty Billboard are occupying spaces in Goa next to public road while
trees are being cut down? Why these Billboards are not razed to the ground,
uprooted and trees planted?
IFFI has only extended underworld mafia from Bombay to Goa
and today controls number of Politicians in insidious manner. This is the
reason as to why Gambling legalized in Goa by BJP supported Francisco Sardinha
government in 1990s still continues to wreck havoc with social, economic,
cultural and ecological fabric of Goa.
Anyway, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is not alone to be
spell bound by Growth Curse. The rest of members too are equally likely to be
under the curse. They are Tourism Minister Babu Azgaonkar, Industries Minister
Rohan Khunte, and Representatives from Industry on IPB Atrey Sawant, Ernest
Dias, Yatin Kakodkar, Girish Bharne, Rajkumar Kamat and Kaman Shekar Sardessai.
The IAS officers who are on the board are Secretary (Industry) and Secretary
(Tourism) whose unofficial role is to collect money bags for Central Government
on the same lines that Manohar Parrikar said sometime ago that MoEF officials
are collecting brief cases to grant EC clearances to mining companies in Goa.
Same logic applies to IPB.
According to highly placed source at IPB, the
political role of handing over large tracks of Goa’s land for corporate houses
is to make sure that Goa is ruled by non-Goans in next five years and students
passing out from Engineering Colleges in are gainfully employed in Goa. In fact it looks that the essential
qualification needed to be on IPB is to be under Growth Curse spell. Sabaji
Shetye played his role to please his masters – political and economic. Now it
is surprising that he is caught red handed in bribery case; perhaps he was
becoming too greedy and keeping all the booty from corruption to himself
without demanded share by higher ups.
Now with Sabaji Shetye’s arrest all the
orders he passed have now come under nail of suspicion. His orders condoning
delays in Vanxim tenancy cases involving Mahendra Gaunekar must be revoked and
land titles reverted back to the People of Vanxim. This is a rare occasion for
the State and the Archbishop of Goa to apply their minds and embark on
correction path as corruption and bribery of Sabaji Shetye is caught red handed.
Handing over Vanxim Island for the pleasure of the rich by
putting Five star hotel and luxury villas in Paddy fields and green areas is
certain tragedy of the commons. According to Giorgos Kallis in his book in
defence of degrowth: Opinions and Minifestos (Open Commons: March 2017) writes
“ Nobel laureate in Economics Elinor Ostrom showed that the commons do not
inevitably end up in tragedy and they do not have to be privatized or managed
by the State. The communities she studied, more often than not, found ways to
pool efforts together, devise their own institutions, and govern their shared
resources sustainably.”
Archbishop of Goa talks often of nurturing of small christian communities but
cares a damn that his office has sold off Vanxim community cultivation land and fishing spaces to a neighborhood Casino Gambler at Altinho, Panjim where
Archbishop resides to gamble his way through at the cost of Public Interest. In sale deed as well as in Agreement to sale it is carefully concealed that buyer of Vanxim is Archbishop's neighbour in Altinho, Panjim.
Disgusting state of affairs as this is not the first time Goa Archbishop’s
office has done things this way. Why till date lead of secrecy is not lifted on the
documents related to Vanxim sale? Why the office of Archbishop has created
situation to put itself in public embarrassment? Why the office of the Goa
Archbishop kept letters it sent to Vatican asking permissions from Pope John
Paul II with all attached documents kept in concealed state? Why letter from
the office of Pope John Paul II authorizing sale of Vanxim kept secret? Pope
John Paul II is now a saint and it is strange that this correspondence has been
kept secret?
The way nexus of the office of the Goa Archbishop is
involved with corporate and negotiated the State agencies is a way to
consolidate its path to Capitalism. Giorgos Kallis has put the context very
succinctly “The frightening reality is that capitalism is a mad joke peddled by
money-addicts with no clue of why they are doing what they are doing, other
than that they are doing it and that they have to keep doing it.” Vanxim fits the bill.
Sabaji Shetye is not alone Government officer under scanner on Vanxim scam. Sanjeev Desai too is involved. You may click here for more on him. No Goa government officer involved in Vanxim scam must go unpunished.
