RTI REVEALS DIRECTOR’S DAUGHTER POCKETED FOUR LAKHS AWARD NOT ENTITLED FOR.

 

By Aires Rodrigues


Ms. Shruti Nayak daughter of Director of Higher Education Mr. Bhaskar Nayak was in 2008 paid by the Goa Government four lakhs she was not entitled for under the ‘Goa Scholars’ scheme. This has been revealed in documents obtained from the Directorate of Higher Education under the Right to Information Act. Ms Shruti Nayak is currently teaching at MES College at Vasco.

As per the documents obtained under RTI, for the year 2007-2008 the department of Higher Education had issued an advertisement on 10th April 2007 calling for applications by 30th April for the ‘Goa Scholars’ scheme.

Ms Shruti Nayak had submitted her application on 30th April in which she stated that the course for which her admission is confirmed was M.Sc in Mathematics from Goa University. She did not however in the application form disclose that she had already commenced her M.Sc course in 2006. The ‘Goa Scholars’ award is for students who have obtained admission for post graduate studies and not for a course already done.

Interestingly in the note attached to her application on why she should be considered for the scholarship, Ms Shruti Nayak stated that she proposed to do her research through either TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), IISC (Indian Institute of Science} or IIT (India Institute of Technology) and that not to financially burden her parents she required the scholarship. Four years after receiving the four lakhs from the Goa Government Ms Shruti Nayak is yet to do her PhD. The records of IIT Bombay show that Ms Shruti Nayak had on 4th & 5th June 2008 appeared for an entrance test and interview for PhD in Mathematics but was unsuccessful.

The documents obtained reveals that in 2007 while the selection process for the ‘Goa Scholars’ award was on, a note was moved that as the daughter of Director of Higher Education Mr. Bhaskar Nayak had applied for the Goa Scholar Scheme that the selection committee be reconstituted with someone else as its Member Secretary. Accordingly Mr. Vivek Kamat then Joint Director of Technical Education was appointed as Member secretary of the selection committee to replace Mr. Bhaskar Nayak. However Mr. Bhaskar Nayak continued as Director of Higher Education, the department which processed the application and paid Ms Shruti Nayak the four lakhs under the ‘Goa Scholar’ scheme.

The six member selection committee headed by then Vice Chancellor of Goa University Prof Deelip Deobagkar short listed 27 out of the 53 who had applied for the award. Out of the 27 short listed only 17 appeared for the final interview of which 5 were selected for the ‘Goa Scholars’ award for the year 2007-2008 including Ms Shruti Nayak.

The ‘Goa Scholars’ scheme was launched in the year 2003-2004 to promote pursuit of post graduate studies and to ensure that economic conditions or financial difficulties do not come in the way of such pursuit.

The scheme aims at assisting meritorious students to undertake post graduate studies in institutions of proven excellence in India or abroad. Over two years Rs two lakhs per year is paid to those taking post graduation studies in India and a one time amount of 15,000 dollars to those studying abroad.

This is a clear case of cleverly trying to manipulate and cheat the government. The four lakhs illegally pocketed by Ms Shruti Nayak should be immediately recovered from her by the Goa government with interest and action should be taken in the matter in accordance with law. In public interest all disbursement of public funds should be meticously scrutinized and monitored.

Though Director of Higher Education Mr. Bhaskar Nayak had officially stayed out of the selection committee, he should have been well aware that his daughter had applied for a scheme under his department for which she was not entitled to.

Mr. Bhaskar Nayak who is holding charge as Director of Higher Education since July 2007 is also the Principal of Government College of Arts, Science and Commerce at Quepem from 2005. Mr. Nayak had earlier held the post of Director of Higher Education from 2002 to 2005.

MAID TORTURED IN KUWAIT BY HER LEBANESE EMPLOYER.

Maid torturing in Kuwait is become so common that residents in Kuwait are become accustomed to take it as a normal happening. People are become accustomed to know that locals are subjecting their maids to torturing because there are many cases where the locals are involved in performing such cruelties on their poor maids but now foreigners have also started torturing their poor maids in Kuwait and that too very ruthlessly.

Here below I reproduce a news item from the local English Daily Arab Times dated 3rd of this month to make the people aware of the harshness of the employers and sponsors here towards their poor maids. In this case, the poor maid is from Indonesia but it can be for any Goan maid as well. For this reason I alert our Goan maids coming to Kuwait to work as maids to be very careful. They must have somebody or the other as their own relative to enquire about them while they are employed as maids in Kuwait. Constant enquiring of the how about of the maids by their relatives or friends or well-wishers in Kuwait must be imperative because some of the employers are worse than wild animals, they don’t know to treat human beings as humans. It is these wild animals who are spoiling the good image of Kuwait.

QUOTE “COMPLAINT FILED WITH HAWALLY POLICE”

“LEBANESE WOMAN HELD FOR TORTURING INDONESIAN MAID”.

KUWAIT CITY. July 2: Police have detained for interrogation an unidentified Lebanese woman for torturing her Indonesian maid for four years, reports Al-Anba daily.

The arrest came when the housemaid accompanied by a representative from her Embassy, filed a complaint with Hawally Police Station.

In her complaint the made wrote the woman tortured her for four years to such an extent she finally got used to her brutal behavior.

The maid has submitted a medical report which shows she is suffering from a broken and deformed finger due to frequent torture, fractures in the teeth due to beating with blunt object, bruises in the face, congestion in the eyes and effects of a sharp object being inserted in her sensitive part in addition to wound scars on the head and different parts of her body.

According to the security sources when the maid arrived at the police station she was in a pathetic condition and it even shocked the police officers and the investigator.

During the investigation the maid said she tried in vain several times to escape from the female sponsor. She added her sponsor was very careful when she left the apartment. She kept her locked inside a room that had no windows.

The maid added she finally managed to escape because the woman forgot to lock the door of the apartment.

Deputy Attorney-General has ordered the maid to be referred to a hospital and the sponsor to the Public Prosecution.

During interrogation the female sponsor is said to have admitted to torturing the maid. UNQUOTE.

From the above news report one can easily conclude that in Kuwait many of the maids are treated like slaves in the mediaeval period. This mentioned incident must be just like a tip of an iceberg and like this there may be innumerable victims suffering cruelties and torturing from the hands of their cruel employers and sponsors. In fact maids in Kuwait are made to work more and paid less and in the eyes of Labour Laws they are invisible. As once Time Magazine correspondent writing on the woes of maids in Kuwait said that “in Kuwait maids are only existing,  in the eyes of law they are not living”.

It is horrible to know that a Lebanese employer in Kuwait by being a foreigner who is like a beggar in somebody’s land is treating her maid so mercilessly. I don’t know what is wrong with these Lebanese, good that they are only Lebanese Arabs and not Western French holding French Passports. Even in many of the companies where Lebanese are holding high posts there you will find lot of discriminations against non-Lebanese. In some companies gangs of Lebanese are sprung up and these gangs with their domination over their management discriminate against non-Lebanese.

My point of publishing this news item is to caution many of my Goan sisters coming to Kuwait to work as maids should thoroughly find out in advance the real character of their employers either locals or non-locals. In this society there is not much respect for human rights. And in the words of Mahatma Gandhi “the society that treats its weaker section badly is a sick society”.

A. Veronica Fernandes,

Kuwait.

BRAZIL OF 1970 AND SPAIN OF 2012.

According to the latest news appearing in print media, the current foot-ball team of Spain is greater than the 1970 World Cup winning Brazilian soccer team. That current Spanish team is the champion of Europe is a true fact consecutively winning European Cup twice. That the current Spanish team is the current World Cup champions winning the trophy in 2010 in South Africa is also a true fact. But to compare the current Spanish national team to the mighty 1970 World Cup winning Brazilian team according to me is not correct.

If Portuguese forward Ronaldo was not a coward to take the first penalty kick in the semi-final against Spain in the recently concluded Euro 2012, it would be a Portugal versus Italy final and not Spain versus Italy. The highest paid footballer in the world Portuguese Ronaldo was a coward and because it was so he got afraid to take the first penalty kick. The jittery footballer cannot be called a world best. Pele, Zico, Socrates and Maradona were not cowards for such occasions and precisely because of this they were renowned as best in the world during their hey days.

Spain in this Euro reached to the final by luck and not by their hard work and sheer tactics though their short passing was a thriller for the spectators. And in the second half in the final, if it was not for 35 minutes of play with only 10 men in Italian side the final result would have been much different from what it was ultimately. To play almost for the whole second half without one key player in their side Italians were totally handicapped. The whole blame for this disaster should fall on Italian Manager who in the first place should not have utilised all the substitutes 35 minutes before the final whistle.

The 1970 World Cup winning Brazilian team according me consisted of super footballers, at least half the team consisted of football  genii; they were so exorbitantly talented that such footballers since then and earlier were not seen in this world. In fact such persons come to this world only once in centuries. And by the way, who were these Brazilian footballers representing Brazil in 1970 Word Cup held in Mexico? Skipper and defender Carlos Alberto, defensive midfielder Clodoaldo, right midfield maestro Gerson, rowing and attacking midfield playmaker Rivelino, forwards Dr. Costao, Jairzinho and indomitable the great Pele. They were exchanging the ball with one another with mathemetical precision even in the air. 

To compare to these great Brazilian footballers, I find none in the current Spanish team though in their custodian Casillas I find a great stalwart. Sergio Ramos in their defence, Alonso in the midfield and Fernando Torres in the forward line of Spain are good but not good enough to compare with any of the Brazilians of 1970 World Cup.

Going a step forward, I can rate 1982 World Cup Brazilian squad even better than that of 1970. Where else we can find players like Eder, Zico, Socrates and Falcao? They were playing football with geometrical precision and with angular passing of the ball.  Their deep defenders were capable of moving up front and scoring wonderful goals. It was by bad luck that they lost to Italy where the miraculous boy Paulo Rossi of Italy created a miraculous hat-trick in their historic encounter in the quarter final. Later on the Brazilian manager Tele Santana said “Brazil had everything to win that edition of World Cup except Luck”. And that was exactly what has happened to Brazil against Enzo Bearzot managed Italian team.

A. Veronica Fernandes,

Kuwait.