It is highly condemnable, unfortunate and disgusting that the Goa Police, under directions of Home and Chief Minister, never hesitated to use force to quell and stop genuine agitations by Goans against the destruction of Goa, be it in Melauli, Panjim, Chandor, Velsao or Sanguem, whereas they look the other way or even condone and patronise illegal activities and violations by criminals and outsiders, who are given a free hand to do as they please, as if laws just do not exist.
Nearly every day, alongwith tragic news of someone dying due to our chaotic traffic, we have reports of lawless behaviour, which goes unchecked. This could have been avoided had the people known that Goa Police is reputed for not tolerating misbehaviour in public. However, far on the contrary, the trouble makers are well aware of how efficient our Police are in curbing and following up on such incidents. Police personnel are treated as heroes when they crack murders or rapes, but there are no attempts at prevention by strict enforcement of laws and scrupulous investigations.
Videos of tourists, throwing garbage, drinking, breaking bottles, chasing women and driving on our beaches are common sight. Large packs of dogs and cattle are also regularly seen, and their excreta get mixed with sand, much to the annoyance of visitors. The incident, where taxi drivers stopped tourists, in the port town, from boarding a bus arranged for touring the State, has brought a bad name to this tourist destination. Sunburn has always been in the news, for wrong reasons, but being a milking cow is provided special treatment, especially by the Police, as was the case with drug dealers. Our weddings and functions lack lustre and have to end early due to strict enforcement of noise pollution laws even during the festive season, but Sunburn went unhindered with Police patronage, and is now, belatedly though, under the HC scanner. Strictures have no impact on thick-skinned officials, unless they are personally penalized and taught a lesson to be learnt by all those who wilfully refuse to enforce the law, obviously for pecuniary gains. It was shameful to learn from the GSPCB that the Police refused to act in controlling noise levels and that they deliberately knocked the door of the complainant and HC petitioner, instead of the violators.
In Porvorim, a lawyer was hit and injured by none other than the Police. If even a lawyer is not safe in Police’s hands, can an ordinary individual be? And why action, only after protests? In Merces, an activist was assaulted for exposing environmental illegalities and yet no immediate action against the violation or the aggression. In Velsao, Railway officials continue to trespass into private property, with the support of Police, apparently under orders from Dy Collector, who sitting in his ivory towers, would not even know where the trespass is happening. In Curchorem, someone involved in sand mining, was shot dead and in Panjim, a young girl raped in a bus.
Another shocking incident, which only proves to what extent the audacity of people, close to politicians, has gone, was the stall set up on the new bridge, few days before it was inaugurated, with a mysterious electric connection to the refrigerator and coffee machine.
The Ministers are in the habit of making such false promises which, perhaps, they’ve learnt from those who also won elections on assurances, like reduction of prices of fuel and gas and improvement in the value of USD, which, in fact, went up manifold. Instead of apologising for the nightmare, which people went through on December 26, with passengers missing flights and patients held up in ambulances, due to viewing from the bridge, the government deceives us by asserting that parking of vehicles did not contribute to the congestion, which is, indeed, true. But the government conveniently ignores that those vehicles did jam the routes, on their way to the new bridge. The government should stop thinking that Goans are stupid to believe what it says or assures.
Strangely, we have reached a stage, where people need to keep an eye on the illegalities undertaken and promoted by the government, instead of being the other way round. One of many such cases is the new garbage dump, beside the District Court in Margao, created solely to clear Sonsoddo. Records of Waste Management Corporation themselves show that high levels of mercury exist there and animal carcasses, plastic bags, syringes, batteries, coconut shells, etc. were collected from the site by their staff and of GSPCB, during their inspections at the site. This proved wrong MD of WMC, Levinson Martins’ contention that waste dumped there was screened at Sonsoddo. The dump already stinks and this will further worsen in monsoons. It will pollute wells and being a field, will get flooded during rainy season.
BJP came to power on the slogan ‘Maximum governance, minimum Government’. The aforementioned incidents speak for themselves and will attest to whether governance and a Government exist at all in Goa. We have a Director General and an Inspector General of Police who ought to be overseeing the actions or inaction of their subordinates, especially in timely filing of FIRs. This financially starved State surely cannot afford having officials, who are unable to ensure enforcement of law and order particularly in a State, where people are, by and large, docile and law abiding.
The Government, already facing flak over Mhadei, needs to pull up its socks, especially on issues of misbehaviour and law, if it wishes to avoid further dent on its waning popularity.
(The author is a
retired banker)
