Whether one has money or not the feast has to be celebrated. Beg borrow or steal...and that is the Konkani proverb "FULU KHUSTAAR FOZNE!" Fozne referrs to a big resounding fire work on the day of feast and FULU is a third person who pays for the feast! Our chief minister Digambar Kamat submitted a wishlist to the central government asking for 15 thousand crores as a 50th Golden jubilee gift for Goa. There is nothing wrong in accepting a gift but asking for a gift smells a rat. But then we had the odacity to ask for a gift citing three reasons:

• The first reason being Goa got liberated after India's freedom and hence we missed first two 5 year plans. Now in the family if you are born 10 years later you will not ask your parents for the share of rice, sugar and cake which your elder brothers have already eaten earlier.
  
• The second reason is that Goa is a small state. So if we are a small state, does it mean that we should get a big birthday gift? The amount asked for comes to Rs. 1 lac per Goan.
  
• Reason three: Goa was ruled by Portuguese for 450 years. So what? India was also ruled by British for 150 years. Out of guilt the British queen has been funding "sarwa shiksha abhiyaan" in our country inspite of the economic hardships they are facing at present in Britan. Hope we do not go to Portugal asking for a similar gift!!
  

It is 50 years since liberation and we have matured from being a union territory to a state. We should be self sustaining by now and utilize the revenue we get from taxpayers and plug all leakages in our economy. We should not be going with a begging bowl to the center as we are doing now. If we had proper industry, we would have been generating ample revenue and there would'nt have been any need to take a loan of 500 crores from Japan for the Salaulim water pipeline project. We intend to spend a lot of money on sewage pipelines too and have a separate corporation just for this! Public works such as road construction are shoddy. The same roads are repaired again and again. Mopa airport still remains a distant dream.

Goa did not take any advantage from the gifts that came our way on their own. We refused the Central university that was offered to us. The NIIT college which was started two years ago is still not able to find a place for itself. We do have six engineering colleges here in Goa producing thousands of engineers in multiple engineerning streams. Over the years, atleat 20 thousand bright Goan engineers must have left Goa because there is no IT industry in Goa. Why don't we utilize the assistance of eminent Goans like Ashank Desai, Mastek MD, to boost the industry in Goa? Mamta Benerjee allotted 50 acres land to Mr. Narayan Murty where he has promissed to give 50 thousand IT jobs in one campus. Can we not follow the same at a lower scale?
The IT park in Dona paula has to be revived. A clean, non polluting industry can generate a lot of revenue for the state. All we have done is invited casinos!

Some MLAs are only creating jobs in the government and selling them for money or for votes. These jobs like assistant stenographer, asst. data entry operator, are not adding value to the state. They just drain the tax-payers' money. We should be resolving to improve the state of Goa, plug the revenue leakages, stop wasteful expenditure and work towards prosperity of Goa and India. Merely pumping more money without making fundamental changes to the way the government functions would be like pouring more water down a leaking pipe.