At very periodic intervals, we try and bring the discourse back to the war on drugs, because that is the most tangible engagement that the government has got into where the deliverables are clear. Goa needs to be cleared of the drug gangs of every hue and colour, and the interface they apparently have with elements in the government and police, according to the Mickky Pacheco House Committee report, needs to be busted.

The apprehension is, and this is real, is that the positive vibrations  which led to the war on drugs being renewed with vigour, in the aftermath of the two drug related deaths recently, seem to be ebbing. Let us ask if we are falling back into the same routine of upping the ante periodically where the government, the police and other agencies slip into top gear, make arrests and do crackdowns and then over a period of time, it is business as usual. Every stakeholder, without any blame game, must ensure that this doesn’t happen. It’s akin to a relapse.

Less than a fortnight ago the SP of the Narcotics Control Bureau raided a shack under the jurisdiction of the Pernem police station, by getting staff from the Mapusa police station without authorization and then made them cross to Pernem without further authorization. The Herald has written and commented extensively on the absolute lack of order in requisitioning staff because of which personnel of the lower ranks have got suspended and hauled up. However, this story has another side. The SP of NCB clearly wanted as little information to be shared with Goa police because he was afraid of leaks. And secondly, the raid on that shack and the manner in which he was attacked by the so called locals, points a finger to the involvement of drug gang in there. And thus, the SP of NCB has reason to believe that it was on the right track. The manner in which he chose to carry out the raid has to be called out but certainly not the motive of the raid, which was to call out and extract suspects who could have been carrying or selling drugs.

Therefore, even as we try and ensure that coordination protocols between agencies, is maintained an acknowledgement is also in order that it wasn’t an exercise in futility.

The war on drugs is a continuous process. To start with we need to know by when the viscera reports of the two boys who died in the vicinity of two night clubs recently will be received and if they have been, the action taken thereof. In any case their death due to drugs was all but confirmed and therefore by now an all out investigation should have started on the source of those drugs. If this has indeed been pursued, then the people of Goa need to be briefed (without operational details).

The role of MLAs and other politicians becomes critical. The Chief Minister asked MLAs to refrain from making statements about the presence of drugs and instead pass on the information either to him or to the police. MLAs should take advantage of this, especially the coastal MLAs. Calangute MLA Michael Lobo and Siolim MLA and Minister Vinod Palyekar, went public on their mission to eradicate the North Coastal belt of drugs. After the Chief Minister’s remarks, they should have immediately worked on a detailed dossier, with names of people linked to the drug business and places where the trade is practiced in some form or the other. If the two ministers are reading this the people of Goa would appreciate a response or an update on whether they have indeed put the information they have in the custody of the Chief Minister or the police.

At the end of the day, if the same people including some shack owners, suspected of running a drug racket, continue to thrive and bounce back from FDA raids (and not drug raids) under a week and controversial nightclubs not just function but announce their EDM and other programmes for the year end and next year, then one is led to believe that there will never be  shut down of a well oiled system.

To start with the formation of an SIT to study the House Committee report (which wasn’t formally accepted) on the police drug lobby nexus should be announced after legally studying if the House Committee report can be accepted in that form. The Chief Minister’s decision on this is on record. This must be implemented.