LIKE THE yuvraj Vishwajit Rane who is the only cabinet minister who enjoys X plus security so also institutions under the charge of the Health Minister are the most heavily protected structures in the state of Goa. Of the total of 900 odd security guards employed by various departments of the government of Goa, health institutions such as the Directorate of Health Services (DHS), Goa Medical College Hospital (GMC), Institute of Psychiatry & Human Behaviour (IPHB) and Goa Dental College (GDC) alone account for over 600 of the total of 900 odd security personnel employed by the government of Goa through private security agencies. Indeed, in case of GMC, the ratio of security guards to doctors is 1:1 and the ratio of security guards to total employees is 1:3. If the security guards employed at other district hospitals and primary health centres are also taken into consideration, the number of security guards in securing the health minister’s fiefdoms may well exceed 1000. In sharp contrast, all the other important departments of the government including the secretariat which houses the offices of the ministers and the Chief Secretary and other secretaries, the district courts, the Public Works Department (PWD) and the water resources department together, have less security guards than institutions controlled by the Yuvraj.

LAST FRIDAY the better three quarters had her purse pick-pocketed at the Panjim market when she was buying vegetables and fruits. While she was walking towards a fruit stall she was pushed by some unknown persons. When she looked for the pouch containing the money which was at the top of her open handbag she found it was missing. Realizing that her handbag had been picked and her pouch containing a few hundred rupees was missing, she went to the Panjim police station to lodge a complaint. The police sub-inspector (PSI) present was not inclined to register her complaint. The presumption being that it was not worth recording a First Information Report (FIR) for the loss of a few hundred rupees. THE PSI refused to register a complaint though it is mandatory for every police station to register any complaint made by a citizen and state reasons in writing if a complaint is not or cannot be registered. Since the better three quarters was insistent on her right to lodge a complaint, the PSI consulted the police inspector in-charge of the Panjim police station. The Police Inspector asked for the name of the complainant.

Goans do not like migrants. There are increasing apprehensions that the migrants like the camel that was given shelter by the compassionate Arab, will disposes them of their homes and their land. The fear is not totally unjustified. This is because wherever there is an industrial estate, inevitably migrant slum colonies spring up. The most dramatic case in point in recent times is Verna Nagao. In the wake of the setting up of the Verna Industrial estate, slums housing migrants have proliferated. Earlier when the Zuari Industries Limited came up, a huge slum colony sprang up in Cortalim which not surprisingly has been known as Futaknagar. Most of the land occupied by the sprawling slums in Futaknagar has been put up by slum lords for housing the contract labour employed by Zuari and other industries in the areas. The Murmagao taluka historically has had the distinction of being the migrant capital of Goa because migrants outnumber Goans in the Murmagao taluka. Historically, it has been the steel rolling mills in the state which are the second largest employers of migrant contract labour. No Goan is willing to work in the conditions that prevail in the steel rolling mills at the core of which are very high temperature furnaces. Goans literally cannot stand the heat. Over the years several dozens if not hundreds of steel rolling mills have come up in Goa to take advantage of the relatively cheap power supply, generous loans from the economic development corporation and the fact that the administration is so corrupt that they do not have to observe any of the safety and pollution norms which are mandatory.

A LEADING tourism website, Tripadvisor, is reported to have labelled Goa the second most unsafe destination, particularly for women in the country. They are wrong and Home Minister Ravi Naik and Director of Tourism Swapnil Naik are right in claiming that Goa is, on the contrary, the world’s safest destination. But not for tourists or for that matter local Goans, but for criminals both domestic and international. It is ironic that at a time when Tripadvisor has bestowed the dubious honour of Goa being the second most dangerous destination for tourists that the Goa police have been unable to apprehend and arrest Goa’s former minister for tourism, the over-sexed Mickky Pacheco, for abetment to suicide and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Despite the fact that Mickky Pacheco, allegedly, managed to visit a notary whose license to notarise had expired, to exempt himself from personal appearance during the hearing of his anticipatory bail application which was rejected by the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court.

NO, I am not talking about the deodorant which makes women swoon. Though probably Mickky Pacheco, with his felicity for attracting young nubile women and even abetting their suicide, possibly uses the much advertised deodorant. But we are talking about the Axe effect in terms of the vigour with which the police and the political establishment in Goa is pursuing the case of abetment to suicide which, on the unfortunate death of Nadia Torrado, has been elevated to culpable homicide amounting to murder, which carries a sentence of up to ten years rigorous imprisonment. Mickky may or may not be guilty of culpable homicide, though all the evidence definitely suggests that he abetted the suicide of Nadia. But what is significant is not the suicide of Nadia itself but the fact that probably for the first time in the history of Congress governments in Goa, a case is being pursued so vigorously by the Goa police. The only parallel to the prosecution which borders on persecution are the cases filed by Manohar Parrikar when he was chief minister against Somnath Zuwarkar, Mauvin Godinho and Dayanand Narvekar.

According to records maintained by the Department of Home Affairs, 1592 freedom fighters receive a pension of Rs.4000 per month from the Government of Goa and 962 freedom fighters receive a pension of Rs.12,407 per month from the Government of India. Assuming the accuracy of these figures, a rough calculation shows that the state and central governments spend around Rs.7,64,16,000 and Rs.14,32,26,408 respectively on pension for this category alone every year. The amount varies with the area of imprisonment suffered by each person and increases, sometimes annually, with the rise in the living index.

FIGHTING FOR freedom of your motherland from foreign colonial domination should be a privilege. It should be considered an honour to fight for the freedom of one’s motherland. Just as one does not expect any returns or gifts or favours for services rendered to one’s own mother, one should not expect any reward for serving one’s motherland. Unfortunately, whether it is in the case of the struggle to free India from British colonial rule or Goa from the Portuguese colonial yoke, there are some freedom fighters who believe that they should not only be rewarded for fighting for liberation of their motherland but seem to insist that not just their children but even their grandchildren and their great grandchildren should be eligible for special privileges because they fought for Goa’s freedom. THE history of Goa talks about many revolts against the Portuguese colonial regime. Ranging from the Cuncolim revolt to the Pinto revolt to the alleged revolt by the Ranes. Never mind that Pratima Kamat, in her book Farar Far, which literally means ‘shot for shot’ dismisses the Ranes as bandits who fought the Portuguese not out of any patriotic reasons, but because of their own personal grievances. There are even instances of the Ranes colluding with the Portuguese.

RESIDENTS of the serene coastal village of Carmona in South Goa were the first to raise the battle cry against ongoing mega housing projects raising their ugly heads in the state on Sunday, March 30, 2008 in a gram sabha meeting that later turned ugly with violent acrimonious scenes witnessed. Now, two years later, the villagers are again up-in-arms protesting the laying of the 55 mm diameter sewerage pipeline that could affect the nearby pristine River Sal and has the blessings of the local MLA and PWD Minister Churchill Alemao. Incidentally, Alemao’s note written to the PWD Department on Monday, November 30, 2009 ‘to immediately take up land acquisition for widening of road no 10 to a width of 10 metres from Survey no 46/7 and 46/8 up to and including Survey no 64/1 in Carmona village in Navelim constituency’ has irked villagers. LOCAL panch member Orlando D’Silva has strongly opposed the project coming up in his ward at Tamdeg-Carmona. Orlando says, “Land cannot be acquired from private owners to widen the road to 10 metres. The villagers are happy with the existing road that had already been acquired in 2000 by the government through the process of an award. The present houses and compound walls will have to be demolished as the existing setbacks are within 10 metres.

GOA HAS had and continues to have many Casanovas among its politicians. Going back to Francisco Montecruz, who was the sports minister in the early 80s, to Ravi Naik, who was the chief minister in the 90s, and the compulsive philanderer Francisco Sardinha, now representing South Goa in Parliament. But, none of the compulsive philanderers have been so brazen about their affairs. And none have treated the women they seduced with such contempt and cruelty as Mickky Pacheco. A tragedy was waiting to happen. And Nadia’s suicide is the denouement of a life of debauchery. The tragedy is that nobody in the political establishment, whether in the ruling coalition or the opposition have been willing to name Mickky. Though they have had no compunctions about slandering the victim. About a fortnight ago, Mickky’s latest victim, Nadia Torrado, a married woman from Loutolim consumed an entire tube of Rattol. There are two versions as to why she took the extreme step of drinking a very dangerous poison which is sure to kill. One theory advanced is that she was pregnant with Mickky Pacheco’s child and he was pressurising her to abort the child. Another reason, which is even more plausible given Mickky’s compulsive record of womanising, is that he brought girlfriend number 4 and told girlfriend no 3, Nadia, to let girlfriend no 4 stay with her.

ON JANUARY 18, 1967 the threat to the unique and distinct identity of Goa was defeated when, in the Opinion Poll held on January 16, 1967, the anti merger group defeated the pro merger Maharashratawadi group by over 40,000 votes. The logical corollary should have been Goa being conferred the status of a full fledged state of the Indian union. Indeed Dr Alvaro Loyola Furtado, who was one of the founders of the United Goans Party (UGP), had demanded that the options given to the people of Goa in the Opinion Poll should be merger with Maharashtra or full-fledged statehood.