MONDAY, MAY 06, 2024
Cops and robbers
These days, the police in Goa are earning an increasing amount of flak, and clearly not without reason. The latest reports say 240 kgs of seized charas has gone missing from the police store room. This is indeed alarming.
Such issues are indeed a priority to Goa. For many years now, concerned citizens, affected tourists and some lawyers too have raised questions about how efficiently the police in Goa have been dealing with narcotics. Doubts have been voiced over suspected links between policemen and drug-peddlars, the possibility of frame-ups, and that drugs seized might actually be getting recycled into the market.
But the reports emerging this week about the vanishing charas takes things to new depths. If true, such a large quantity of narcotics could not have vanished without a high level of official collusion. Politicians, who are in the habit of interfering with official functioning, need to be also held accountable over this case. Their role needs to be studied.
It is the duty of all concerned — citizens, the media, and Goa’s senior officials — to ensure that cases like these are not swept under the carpet. Nothing less than a thorough and proper probe into Goa’s handling its narcotic situation would satisfy the citizen. Even if there is a possibility of one narcotic gang attempting to frame another, it would be worth it if only the truth emerges.
Credit should go to the media and journalists who have worked to dig up such information. They should not stop here. Narcotics is an issue which raises our hackles, and rightly so. But Goa has to face up to issues of poor governance in a number of fields, and not just our police or their role on narcotics.
Some time back, the then BJP government made a case to speedily expand the police. It was argued that Goa was under-policed, and more hands were needed on the job. Now, it appears that the police are themselves poorly policed. Unless checks and balances are put into place, and speedily, just increasing numbers is going to be meaningless. Actually, it could be counter-productive.
Things are getting so ludicrous, that the situation reminds one of the childhood game of ‘police and robbers’. At some point in the game, the respective teams of ‘police’ and ‘robbers’ simply change sides, and switch roles. When it comes to policing the big money spinner called narcotics here, Goa’s tragedy is that we’re playing such a game in real life.
Central role
Two Central Government institutions in Goa have been in the news. The National Institute of Water Sports is, after a decade-and-a-half delay, to benefit from a final “decision” of New Delhi, and will get going in Goa, we are told. It is to be allocated Rs 15 crores.
We’ve been hearing about the NIWS for ages now. What is the reason for this delay in getting its grandiose plans going? It is a shame that an institute of this kind has taken so long in being set up.
Chief Minister Digambar Kamat has meanwhile praised the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR). The Headland-Sada based institution has made Goa proud, the CM was quoted as saying.
What exactly are the achievements of the NCAOR? How much has been spent on this institution — and on the NIWS too — and what have the returns been? Can institutions like these, besides others, be more transparent about their activities? Do they have the mechanism to release their findings to the public? Or will this be just another ivory tower, to keep scientists and others in employ, while being of little relevance to the citizen?
Goa has so many other Central Government institutions sited here. It’s time they are more accountable and citizen-friendly. As far as the commonman goes, these could just be black holes into while a whole lot of taxpayer rupee vanishes, with very little visible results.
