By Dr Olav Albuquerque

CRIMES in Goa revolve around the broad heads of land, mining and tourism which are interlinked, so that drugs, prostitution and murder have a nexus to the first three. Religion comes a distant fourth in crime but is linked to tourism. Goa is a beach state and a visit at night to the beaches such as Calangute or Baga will surprise innocent and gullible tourists. Women stalk these beaches at night soliciting customers and drugs are not unheard of along the beaches.
Just as gullible tourists from other states are enticed to gamble away their money at the casinos which blare loud music night long on the Panaji front of the Mandovi river, the criminal masterminds are found amongst a few ministers who earn as much as they can within the limited five years available to them. Constables on local beats know when not to take any action, they know when they have to look the other way if they do not want to be victimized by Goa’s powerful politicians.
This is why the Tourism Department has announced it will host the annual seafood festival on Miramar beach this year when the department usually organizes food festivals on the Campal grounds. The Tourism Department has directly flouted the assurance given to the High Court of Bombay at Goa in the years 1999 and 2000 by the then tourism director, UD Kamat. This constitutes direct contempt of court because an undertaking given to the high court has to be complied with.

SEA FOOD FESTIVAL
THIS year the Goa Seafood Festival will be held between February 9 and 11 in the evenings. The holding of this festival directly contradicts the affidavit filed by the Tourism department on February 27, 2000 wherein the government had assured the high court that a “policy decision” had been taken to stop organizing any food festivals on beaches.
A former councilor from the City Corporation of Panaji, (CCP) Patricia Pinto, had reportedly warned the Tourism department that the CCP will be forced to initiate contempt proceedings if it goes ahead with the holding of the food festival on a beach. Based on this assurance given to the High Court of Bombay at Goa, this writ petition was disposed of. However, the Tourism department which is headed by Minister for Tourism Rohan Khaunte, has now reneged on this undertaking to the High Court. But let us give him the benefit of the doubt as he was not the tourism minister when the affidavit was filed. The latest news coming through is that the venue of the Sea Food Festival has now been shifted to the open field grounds of the Sports Authority of Campal (this is attached to the old venue of the Campal parade grounds reportedly).
In a separate development, the villagers from Mayem hailed a high court directive not to grant fresh permits for ore transportation through their villages. “Two days ago, the police arrested us on the instructions of the deputy collector and mamlatdar after we stopped illegal ore transportation. The high court has vindicated our stand that ore transportation through the internal roads of Mayem was illegal. Now, the government owes us an explanation as to why we were arrested,” said a villager.
What this villager does not realize is that the Goa Police comes under the government and police inspectors toe the line of local MLAs and ministers because they know if they do not do so, they will be transferred to inconvenient locations. So, it is better to oblige the ministers than disrupt their family lives.

WHITE COLLAR CRIMES
BUT mining will continue to provide a livelihood to the people from Sanvordem and the mining belt, which is why it is a source of white collar crime. The Sanvordem MLA, Ganesh Gaonkar, again iterated that mining provides livelihood to his constituency. Closure of mines for the last 12 years has severely affected their livelihood, Gaonkar told reporters on January 17.
What he does not disclose is that one man’s right to livelihood is another man’s poison because transporting iron ore through the villages through trucks, spreads fine iron ore dust and destroys fertile fields. This is why mining and land are interlinked so that local sarpanch get elected and grab land, while some ministers are facing FIRs in neighboring Karnataka for owning benami companies involved in mining and transportation.

KARNI SENA
AND finally, we have the Congress declaring that the Karni Sena, which wants an archaeological survey of the Sancoale church under which they claim is an ancient Hindu temple. Activists submitted a memorandum to the Archaeological Survey of India to put a stop to such hate-mongering activities and demanded action against illegal structures in Old Goa where an illegal bungalow had come up which belonged to a prominent politician.
So, there you have it. Goa has joined the national mainstream with drugs, prostitution, sex scandals weaving in with land, mining, tourism and old churches like Sancoale which were built several centuries ago by the Portuguese.