By Marcellus D’Souza
Apr 5: The Goa Police, yesterday, put out an advisory requesting all residents, hoteliers, guest houses, contractors to submit the tenant’s verification information in a prescribed form, which is available in every police station.
But why is a physical form being prescribed in the age of the computer and Apps. Could the Goa Police not build an App which could be uploaded instantaneously?
Physical paper forms belong to another age and time. What guarantee is there that the form will be found when most needed? Will it be stored in a proper manner or filed and thrown in some godown never to be retrieved. How will it be updated each time a tenant changes residence or a hotel or lodge gets a new guest?
Today, everybody has a mobile phone and can access it whenever needed. Uploading an app is easy as it is available on Google Play Store. Updating the information is easier. The police must move with the times. Who has got the time or patience to visit a police station to submit a form, which will ultimately become a white elephant?
What is the attitude of the cops towards its citizenry? Do they understand the significance of the data being collected? Already when a tourist checks into a hotel / lodge, information from various cards like Aadhar, Pan and Credit Card are collected at the reception. This form is going to complicate issues rather than simplify them.
The police have blamed the non-submission of the ‘verification form’ for the low success rate of crime detection. This is laughable. Is the role of the police only to collect bribes? Or harass gullible Goans and tourists alike. The police needs to pull up its socks rather than to apportion the blame onto the citizen, washing its hands off the responsibility given to it by the law.
Pramod Sawant who holds the Home portfolio, must in his second innings as CM, modernise the Police Department. The dereliction of duty has been going on too long. Goa has always been and will continue to be a laid back state. Does that mean the police force can catch their 40 winks of sleep while the criminal improvises in technique and performance?
The police state, “Goa can be used as a haven by criminals”. This is a well known fact. The Russian mafia, the Israeli’s, the Nigerians and the Kashmiri’s has over run and bull dosed the local populace and culture. It is well known fact as to how the Kashmiri’s run their clandestine business with the carpet industry front; the Nigerians are the biggest drug dealers in Goa, the Israeli’s who have joined hands with the Delhi gang are into real estate business and the Russians are into all type of underworld nefarious activity.
If the police are serious about the verification process, it must target the Lamani Masseuses at Goan beaches. Is there any trace as to where they live and from where do they arrive? Next should be the cheap hippy community. Let us accept it; Goa does not get the crème de la crème of tourists. Many tourists over stay the period for which their visa has been granted. The police must have a robust system to weed out such tourists. Further, many Goans get married to ‘foreigners’. Are these marriages legal or are they an act of connivance? The Goa police must have access to Interpol to check the background of each foreign tourist. The ‘chalta hai’ attitude that is seen not only in Goa but in India has made the country a safe haven for criminals and those on the wrong side of the law.
It is a joke when the police ask home owners and hotels to do ‘verification checks’ because no crime can take place without the tacit involvement of the police. Even if it doesn’t, the involvement of police in ‘solving’ the case involves bribes et al. Even the writing of the FIR is tilted depending upon the ‘mithai ka dabba’ promised and delivered. So let us stop fooling ourselves. There are a number of cases to prove this point. In fact, the overall faith of the people has vanished from a force that is meant to protect the common citizen. We need to immediately stop the sensationalisation of crime and begin to solve cases, in order to retain the credibility of the police.