Narayan!! Narayan!! What insight!

An article was published in a newspaper whose central character is Naradji and I love the way he spoke the truth about the Administration of Daman & Diu. After a long time, I came across such a truthful article. This article is different from the articles that are just oozing with butter nowadays.

The above article speaks a lot about sufferings of the people of Daman & Diu for the last 1000 days.

This article also spoke a lot about our politicians and their position in the eyes of the administration.

The 1000 days of the suffering of people of Daman & Diu are as follows:

All roads are in dilapidated condition – no improvement in 1000 days only deterioration, all private development of land are stopped, fire policy not defined – files are rejected on fanciful grounds, on coastal highway all constructions are stopped on verbal order even though they have all valid permissions, tourism in Daman & Diu is reduced to nil due to improper and inhumane policies of the administration, illegal construction by the administration, inhumane treatment to govt. employees, outside candidates are preferred over local candidates, wasteful expenditure by the administration, murder of public voice by insulting elected representatives, no public consultation in any of the initiatives by the administration – in fact, public opinions are willfully belittled, local industries are harassed, snatching away rights of Gram and District Panchayat, Municipal Councils, etc.

In fact, these are 1000 days of gloom.

Naradji aptly spoke about the situation of politicians and the sufferings of people. Well done.

Why some areas of Daman are constantly kept under Section 144 for years?

Following areas are constantly kept under Section 144 in Daman:

Sr. No.	Area	Reason	Date
			From	To
1	Secretariat & Collectorate	The public meeting, Dharna, rally, use of loudspeaker, slogan shouting, etc	07/07/2014	19/07/2015
2	-         Do -	-         Do -	03/09/2015	31/12/2015
3	-         Do -	-         Do -	24/02/2016	23/04/2016
4	-         Do -	-         Do -	24/06/2016	22/05/2017
5	-         Do -	-         Do -	26/06/2017	22/09/2017
6	-         Do -	-         Do -	09/10/2017	24/04/2019

These data were collected under the RTI Act, 2005.

There are some other reasons and places of Daman district where also Section 144 was imposed but they are sporadic.

I was wondering on reasons for imposing Section 144 surrounding area of Secretariat and Collectorate constantly?

Why persons sitting in Secretariat and Collectorate need constant protection? It appears that their functioning is autocratic and anti-people.

Why impose Section 144 and restrict the movement of the people? What wrong they have done that needs guarding? Whom they are afraid of?

This is anti-people, autocratic administration and list of the imposition of Section 144 glaring example of the same.

DMC’s Councilors have passed a resolution against PIL filed for violation of CRZ!!

The Councillors of Daman Municipal Council have passed a resolution against Public Interest Litigation filed in the Bombay High Court for violation of Coastal Zone Management.

This PIL has publicised autocratic and lawless functioning of the Administration of Daman & Diu and these elected Councillors have supported this autocratic and lawless functioning of the administration by passing the resolution.

I remember that on dated 05/12/2017, public interaction was held in the Council Hall between Councillors and public on the issue of converting 2 lane road into 4 lane road from Samudranarayan Temple to Hindu Smashan Bhumi. To convert the road into 4 lanes the administration had earmarked the properties required to be demolished and it was recommended by the public to pass a resolution in the Council’s next meeting to oppose this move since this road was Council’s property on which the administration was encroaching. The local fishermen were opposed to the development of this road as it was constructed by the DMC to provide them with the shortest road to transport their catch to their storing facilities.

A letter was submitted by me with the subject “Request to pass Resolution in next Council meeting for raising objection on converting existing road from Samundranarayan Temple upto Hindu Smashanbhumi into 4 lane coastal road, developing surrounding area as tourist attraction and to stop process of tendering for the said work” on dated 06/12/2017.

At that time the Council chose to be silent and did not move requested resolution even though the public was with them.

The PIL filed in Bombay High Court for various violation of CRZ is an extension of that same road and these spineless councillors have passed a resolution to oppose that PIL!

These are Councillors who cannot stand up for their voters are hand in glove with the violators of CRZ.

What made PWD, Daman & Diu hire private vehicles?

There are some vehicles plying on roads of Daman with a banner of “ON DUTY PWD DAMAN”.

There are many vehicles owned by PWD, Daman & Diu like trucks, cars, motorcycles, etc. then why they need to hire more vehicles?

Moreover, under which contracts these vehicles are hired? For which works or officers, they are hired?

The Administration has declared toilets at Petrol Pumps and Restaurants as public toilets in Diu District

On 10/09/2019, the Administration of Daman & Diu has declared toilets situated at Petrol Pumps and Restaurants in Diu District as public toilets without consultation with stakeholders.

It is the duty of the Administration to build and maintain public toilets at various places and tourist spots but they don’t have the fund for such small works and desire of service. They have fund only for big projects from where they can earn. But public toilets are also important so they have come up with the innovative idea, made an Order and shifted the onus to the Petrol Pumps and Restaurant owners, who were maintaining toilets for their customers now have to cater to the general public and maintain it without any reimbursement.

Now, imagine a situation. Any tourist or visitor will go to Petrol Pump or Restaurant and use the toilet situated in that premises and owner cannot say anything and they have to maintain that toilet since the same will be used by their customers also.

In Restaurant, it will be difficult since a visitor will pass through their property to get access to their toilets, disturbing every customer sitting in that restaurant.

I think this is a noble cause and nobody should have an objection to this. But the problem starts with the intention. The Administration is spending thousands of crores on infrastructure projects then why it abhors spending some money on public utilities like toilets.

Is one more thing worth mentioning here is that, will Petrol Pump and Restaurants owner get some kind of benefit for providing these facilities to the public free of cost? I think they should get a rebate in GST or Income-Tax or Property Tax.

New construction works on Coastal Highway are stopped

It has come to the knowledge that constructions of new projects on Coastal Highway in Nani Daman as well as in Moti Daman are stoped arbitrarily by order of the administration.

All projects ordered to stop construction have their NA permission, plan duly approved by the concerned authorities and commencement certificate issued to them and on one fine day government officials visit them and order them verbally to stop work till further verbal orders.

This is whimsical. One day some government official thinks that he wants all construction projects to stop and he orders his subordinates to fulfil his desire and in bid to outsmart other officers, he follows verbal instructions of his boss and stops all developmental works on Coastal Highway.

This is akin to the development of Daman – Devka coastal road where they started construction of road without proper approval of Coastal Zone Authority on verbal orders.

Same way District Panchayat, Daman was looted in recent past on the verbal orders of political leadership and government officers were suspended for passing bills without due diligence.

In Coastal Highway case crores of rupees of private developers are blocked without their fault and in Devka road crores of rupees of government development fund is wasted for not following proper procedure and in District Panchayat case crores of rupees development fund was looted in connivance between politicians and officers.

Will some fearless politician rise and get clarification on this Coastal Highway projects?

Execution of work by Split work in District Panchayat, Daman (Part II)

Large works are executed by splitting them into small works so that it comes under the jurisdiction of Executive Engineer so that they don’t have to go to the Superintending Engineer or above.

Execution of work by way of split work is so rampant in the District Panchayat, Daman that totalling Part I and II come to more than Rs. 12,48,00,000/- (Rupees twelve crores forty-eight lakhs only).

There are already two memorandums submitted regarding split works and there some more to come.