Goa government deserts seafarers marooned at sea. Declaring zones is not akin to traffic signals - By Nisser Dias

On 14^th April 2020, more than 100 British tourists were leaving Goa for England on a special charter flight arranged by its government at the same time Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was addressing the nation to extend the lockdown by another two weeks.

The same afternoon hordes of migrant labourers converged at Bandra railway station in Mumbai to travel back to their homeland.

The English tourists and Indian migrants wanted to be at home with their families and loved ones.

For almost a month now, Goan seafarers stranded on cruise liners and vessels in deep seas. Their pleas to be brought home has fallen on deaf ears of the BJP government in Goa and at the centre.

Worse still domestic cruise liner which sailed to Goa with 93 Goan sailors were refused to disembark and sent back to Mumbai to be quarantined and continue to live on the vessel.

How insensitive can this BJP government be? In England more than 10,000 people have lost their lives to corona virus. But their government is making all the arrangement to take their citizens back to their country.

Maharashtra and Mumbai in particular has the highest number of deaths and Covid-19 positive cases in the country, knowingly Goa government refuses our seafarers entry into the own land.

Goa was in better situation to quarantine these seafarers. It seems very obvious that the ministers in the government had a hidden agenda and want to extract their pound of flesh from the helpless Goans.

Goa has been under lockdown and curfew since 22^nd March 2020. Was this not the best time to bring in the seafarers from all over the world and quarantine them? But our dim-witted chief minister of Goa Pramod Sawant did not think so. How will the non-Goan CM of Goa ever have feelings for Goans?

If at all there is pucca Covidiot in Goa, it is the CM. He is in a tearing hurry to manage to the statistics to show minimum deaths and positive cases.

A day after Prime minister’s 3rd appearance since the outbreak of the virus, Sawant has declared south Goa as green zone.

This inefficient chief minister should have first brought back the seafarers, quarantined and treated them and then declare it as green zone. Does he even know how much seafarers contribute to the economy that too holding on to the finance portfolio? I doubt it.

Pramod Sawant should have had the least common sense that declaring red, orange green zones and not akin to changing traffic signal lights. He should have been very cautious of it.

He should have brought all our seafarers who are waiting for government’s intervention to bring them home, quarantined and treated them before declaring zones.

The bunch of jokers including the chief clown governing the state should have accepted the advice and used the experience of Captain Venzy Viegas, Dixon Vaz and others to carry out the exercise of bringing the seafarers back.

The detailed document presented to the government and to the defunct NRI Commissioner Narendra Sawaikar should have been should have been put to good use. The document spelt out minute nitty-gritties like which batch of seafarers should be brought in first, what they should wear while boarding and alighting the flight. They had chalked out programmes for sailors while in quarantine and lot many other points.

But this obsolete and useless chief minister washed off his hands and threw the ball in union government’s court.

Pramod Sawant has made more than his nest in Goa, but he does not know what family means to Goans. Parents, wives, children are living in fear as the seafarers have not been brought home by the government.

Nisser Dias

Shipping companies have offered to charter flights for seafarers to be brought home without any expense to the ex-chequer. The government has to only open the airport. Captain Viegas, Dixon and other have offered help to engage the seafarers in obeying the medical procedures but the government refuses it.

What is the hidden agenda of this government – score brownie points in the eyes of prime minister by showing him Goa did not any deaths, that the state has fought corona virus with financial assistance from the centre.

Non Goan chief minister of Goa should realize that the worst is yet to come. We have not yet reached the peak, we are not yet done with the virus. Our economy is in shambles, unemployment due to this pandemic has gone through the roof, tourism is already hit and gloom hovers over next tourism season. Education system is affected and will have to be brought on track. There is lot more to do and I do not think that this government led by the incompetent chief minister has the foresight and insight to do it.

Is Covid-19 an event and Goa’s CM a stage manager? – By Nisser Dias

Two persons have lost their lives while undergoing treatment for Covid-19 like symptoms but the BJP government in Goa is in denial mode.

8000 Goa seafarers are stuck at sea in international waters, CM is playing the ball game.

7000 government servants basically teachers packed in a room for training to undertake survey throwing socials and physical distancing to the winds.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant claims the two deaths while in isolation are not due to Covid-19 but other health complications. He relies on the tests conducted on them indicated negative for corona virus.

Is it so bad that our doctors at Goa Medical College cannot treat pneumonia and diabetics that a person dies at 38 years? Or is it another mutated form of Covid virus that was not detected during the tests?

It seems to be very much evident that the chief minister is trying to stage manage the Covid-19 statistics to cover his sins of commission and omission. Without a shadow of doubt Vishwajit Rane would have done a much better job.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant

A report in a national daily Times of India on 10^th April has carried a news item about emergence of false negative reports conducted on suspected individual have Covid-19 symptoms. The item goes on to add that studies from Wuhan in China from where this strain of virus took off had also found false negative reports.

Two persons who have succumbed while in isolation were admitted because they showed symptoms of the novel corona virus. CM immediately jumped on television to claim their tests were negative. It is nothing else but stage management of the statistics to show Goa does not have a Covid-19 death.

Another individual was discharged from quarantine when his reports came negative only to summon him back after another set of tests came positive.

Yet another patient visited GMC 5 times in as many days complaining of fever and sore throat but was not admitted. On the seventh day the authorities had to rush to his residence to bring him in as he tested positive.

This is an indication that these tests are not 100 percent accurate and as studies in China has collated false negative reports can be as high as 30 percent.

Are these instances not enough to say that the chief minister doesn’t really understand whatever his saying and doing?

Secondly around 8000 seafarers are stranded in the seas in faraway international waters for more than a month and chief minister Pramod Sawant and his NRI Commissioner Narendra Sawaikar has no clue how to tackle the situation to bring them back.

Retired seafarers including captains of the ship have provided detailed inputs to embark upon a plan to bring back the seafarers, but the bunch of jokers in the cabinet including the chief minister has throw the ball in the Union government’s court simply because the clowns in the Goa cabinet are incapable of applying its mind.

This ineffective, weak and useless chief minister of Goa and his sidekick the NRI commissioner has to understand these seafarers have brought precious foreign currency into India and during this crucial juncture the government is deserting them.

Thirdly when even the public is sensitized about social and physical distancing, government servants mostly teachers are packed in the hall throwing all caution to wind to train them to conduct a survey in the state.

Nisser Dias

This exercise by the government is an exercise in futility or rather maybe to enter the expenses in the account books. We should not lose sight of the fact the state government has receive Rs. 6 crores as initial payment and have to receive another Rs. 5 crores to fight the pandemic Covid-19. Whether the money would be sincerely used for the purpose or diverted elsewhere by smudging accounts is a question mark.

The government should have roped in panchayat members to carry out this survey in their respective wards and immediately taken up ‘testing and tracing’ on war footing instead of roping 7000 government servants to do it. With this move the government has violated its own lockdown.

Chief minister Sawant is not capable of comprehending the situation because he is not at all practical or pragmatic in his approach to fight this pandemic virus, but is just theoretical.

For the BJP government in Goa Covid-19 is event and chief minister is the stage manager.