Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho’s retort to Michael Lobo – “Some people only talk” – may win applause from sycophants, but it does not answer the fundamental question: What have you done by staying quiet?
Let’s be clear: the taxi meter fiasco in Goa is not a petty squabble between politicians. It is a living, bleeding example of how public money is siphoned off, how the law is mocked, and how ministers keep shrugging responsibility by invoking the High Court’s directions and the decisions of their predecessors.
The numbers don’t lie. Taxi operators were forced to pay ₹11,000 per meter – that’s a mind-boggling ₹22 crore if you conservatively estimate 20,000 taxis and rent-a-cabs. And then, an annual renewal charge of ₹5,000 for each meter – ₹10 crore more every year, even when meters are never used.
We all know the trick: once the meters are fixed, the drivers throw a towel over them. Tourists are kept in the dark and charged arbitrary fares. Why do they bother renewing meters nobody uses? Because the entire scheme has become a running commission machine – and the Transport Department is the fuel.
Minister Godinho, if you believe simply parroting “the High Court ordered it” is enough, you are mistaken. Courts can direct installation of meters to protect the public. It is your duty as minister to enforce their use. When you fail to implement, monitor, and penalise defaulters, you are complicit in this rot.
This is not an ideological attack or a political vendetta. It is about corruption in plain sight. The meters are a classic case study in governance theatre: make a big show of reform, squeeze money from drivers, then look away as enforcement collapses. The fact that an annual “renewal” is charged for devices that are never switched on should make every honest Goan furious.
And what happens to all this money? No transparency. No audit. No accountability. It vanishes into the black hole of “departmental expenses” while the actual purpose of the meters – to protect tourists and regulate fares – is a total failure.
Michael Lobo is no saint, but he is right about one thing: there is a mafia of commissions operating in the system. This mafia thrives because ministers, secretaries, and contractors have perfected the art of collecting fees without delivering service. Taxi meters are not the only example. Remember the beach cleaning scam, the ventilator scam, the garbage collection scam? Different departments, same disease.
And what is your response to all this? “Some people only talk.”
This is exactly the problem. Those in power refuse to talk about corruption. They stay quiet, hoping people will forget. Or they pretend that any criticism is mere politics. It isn’t. It’s about basic decency in public life.
If you truly have nothing to hide, publish a white paper on the taxi meter project:
* Show the list of vendors.
* Show the exact revenue collected.
* Show the annual renewals.
* Show how many taxis were fined for non-compliance.
* Show how much revenue was used to improve enforcement.
Until that happens, your silence will look a lot like complicity.
Goa deserves better than towel-covered meters and towel-covered truths. The taxi operators, the honest drivers, the tourists, and the taxpayers are all being cheated. You cannot wash your hands by blaming the High Court or previous governments. Governance is about outcomes, not excuses.
It is time for Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant to take this issue seriously. The rot is deeper than one department. It reflects a pattern of systemic failure where contractors, bureaucrats, and politicians all benefit while the public pays.
Minister Godinho, you say some people only talk. Perhaps. But talking is better than pretending nothing is wrong. And right now, your silence is deafening.
Because silence, in the face of corruption, is not neutrality. It is surrender.
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