By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when we discovered that greed is killing the tourism industry in Goa. For a Saturday following the week when there were fresh blackmail attempts by the Dhavalikar brothers. For a Saturday following the week when the middle school students will have to return to school from April 7, 2025. For a Saturday following the week when law and order has declined due to the unwillingness of police personnel to work at police stations.

MURDER OF GOA TOURISM
AND a few stray thoughts on the discovery that greed is killing the tourism industry in Goa. The tourism industry is so desperate to make fast bucks that prices are hiked every time there is a long weekend. Apparently, everyone from Mumbai and Bengaluru wants to spend their long weekends in Goa.
The consequence is that everyone is greedy to rip off tourists in Goa. The airlines hike their fares to double the normal fares. The hotels increase their room tariff on the eve of a demand for accommodation. Many restaurants increase their prices so that they can make money whenever there is a holiday rush.
Private tourist taxis argue that everyone is hiking up their prices. They are also entitled to increase their fares. The result is that an extended holiday weekend is more expensive than taking a break in neighbouring Sri Lanka or even Thailand or better still Vietnam.
In the old days fares remained stable most of the year and only increased to became sky-high during the Christmas-New Year season. After the charter flight arrivals started coming in, there was a peak season from November to February and a lean season during the summer months. Now it is peak season every extended weekend.
Apparently, the stakeholders in tourism have never heard of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Short-term greed is killing the long-term stability and prosperity of tourism in Goa. It’s not only the air fares and the hotel and taxi rates that go up during the long weekends. Surge pricing is the curse of the food delivery services too. If you become addicted to Swiggy and Zomato food deliveries you have to pay more for the delivery service.
I suspect that it is these food delivery portals which started the practice of surge pricing. If you order anything from Zomato or Swiggy around lunchtime or dinner-time, you end up paying much more during non-peak hours. Surge pricing is an evil invention that takes advantage of the sudden demand for more food deliveries, forcing people to pay a premium for instant service or satisfaction.
I understand that even in small hospitals and nursing homes, they charge double for a simple injection delivery to an emergency patient. The logic being perhaps that the night shift staff suffer more and there’s less staff employed at night time duties in hospitals.

DHAVALIKAR BLACKMAIL
AND a few stray thoughts on the fresh blackmail attempts by the Dhavalikar brothers. The Dhavalikar brothers, Sudhin and Deepak Dhavalikar, claim to represent the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak party. The BJP came to power in Goa due to the decline and collapse of the MGP. The MGP did not survive for very long after Sashikala Kakodkar took over the party from her father Bhausaheb Dayanand Bandodkar.
In any case, the MGP had become irrelevant after Goa and Goans rejected a merger with Maharashtra. The rot in the MGP began when Pratapsingh Raoji Rane, along with some other MLAs, defected to the Congress, bringing down the Sashikala government. The MGP survived and flourished till Konkani became the official language of the state in 1987.
Subsequently, the top leaders of the MGP, namely Ramakant Khalap and Ravi Naik, defected to the Congress. Though the leaders deserted the MGP, the workers retained their loyalty to the party. The cadre of the MGP switched their loyalty to the BJP when Manohar Parrikar became the leader of the saffron party.
Even now, the basic supporters of the BJP are former MGP workers. Sensing an opportunity to acquire power for themselves, the Dhavalikar brothers captured the MGP. They use the lion symbol to bargain with the BJP for cabinet berths. This is how Sudhin Dhavalikar managed to get a cabinet berth in the Pramod Sawant government. The BJP leadership is aware that the Dhavalikar brothers do not have much support.
The BJP is insisting that the MGP should merge with BJP. There is talk of dropping Sudhin Dhavalikar from the cabinet to accommodate Michael Lobo or Digambar Kamat. There is pressure in the BJP to reward the Congress MLAs who defected to ensure the survival of Pramod Sawant. The BJP state president, Damu Naik, has served notice on the Dhavalikar brothers. We do not know if the Dhavalikar brothers can persuade Amit Shah to come to their rescue.

STUDENT DILEMMAS
AND a few stray thoughts on the middle school students who will have to return to school on April 7, 2025. The school term for students from the 6th to 10th standard ended only end-March. So effectively the secondary students have enjoyed the vacation of only two weeks. The Director of Education has tried to appease parents by agreeing to half day school in the hot month of May. The school hours will end at 11.30am between April 7 and April 30.
Perhaps under pressure from parents and teachers, Director of Education Shailesh Zingade has also agreed to extend a month’s holiday from May 1 till the first week of June. It is clear that the decision to start schools in April instead of June has become a prestige issue for Education Minister Dr Pramod Sawant. It does not make any sense to open the schools in April 7 for half-a-day and then give a vacation for a month till the first week of June.
In all practical terms the state government has accepted the demands of parents and teachers. It is clear that the excuse that schools need a longer time to complete the new syllabus is not valid. If this was the case there would have been no compromise on school timings in April. There are many larger issues involved in the sudden change in school timings from the current year. There are many other factors tied up with the early opening of the schools.
The security staff in schools are hired on a contract basis for nine months. A lot of the teachers are on contract. They aligned services like transport are also geared to a nine-month schedule. A number of auto rickshaws and Maruti vans are involved in transporting children. Everyone from parents to teachers to transport operator enjoy a holiday during the hottest month of the year. What is objected to is not a change in the timings of the school here but the sudden change.
Mercifully, the primary section has been spared the trauma of an early start to the academic year. Primary students will continue to enjoy their three-month vacation, with schools scheduled to start only in the first week of June.

DECLINING LAW & ORDER
AND a few stray thoughts on the decline in law and order in Goa due to the unwillingness of the police personnel to work at the police stations. Cops posted at the police station have to work seven days a week and around the clock 24×7; however, constables and officers who are posted in the traffic cells and in rural areas enjoy a five-day week. Constables and even junior officers manage to use political pressure to get postings near their homes.
The bulk of the constables and junior officers are from Pernem, Bicholim, Ponda and the Sattari police stations. This creates a severe shortage in police stations in Bardez, Tiswadi, Mormugoa, and south Goa. Coastal police stations are also much in demand as they are very profitable. It is well known that constables and junior police officers extort money from foreign and domestic tourists. Periodically, the police headquarters announce that it has transferred constables and police officers. Since the majority of police have political contacts, they manage to avoid transfer and remain in the same police station for many years.
For the first time, the Director General of Police Alok Kumar has admitted that investigations in robbery, murder and other serious cases are badly affected due to the shortage of police constables and officers in busy police stations. Surely Home Minister Pramod Sawant should be able to resist pressure to stop postings from his cabinet colleagues
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DOG BITES INCREASE
AND a few stray thoughts on the huge increase in dog bites, particularly on the beaches of Goa. Union Minister for Animal Welfare Prof SP Singh has revealed in parliament that there have been as many as 57 dog bites every single day in January alone on the beaches of Goa. Goa has a stray dog population of 56,000. The state has reported a 100% increase in dog bites over the last two years.
Ironically, Goa claims that it is the first state in the country to have eliminated rabies. For some unexplained reason, foreign tourists seem to be the primary target of stray dogs on the beaches. The dog bites have been the highest on the south Goa beaches.
In Cavalossim alone, eight tourists have been attacked by stray dogs in the month of January. The foreign tourists have been attacked while they were going for a walk on the beach. The most recent attack occurred on March 22, when a tourist who went for a morning run was suddenly attacked and bitten by stray dogs. The number of dog bites increased from 8,057 in 2022 to 11,000 in 2023. This has risen to almost 18,000 in 2024. The increase in dog bites is perhaps linked to the shutdown of several NGOs involved in the welfare of dogs.
Unlike in the past, there is no recognized program for the vaccination and sterilization of stray dogs. A lot of people feed stray dogs but are not willing to take responsibility for them. In a desperate measure, the state government has asked Drishti, which is involved in watching the beaches and preventing drowning cases, to also protect tourists from dog bites on the beaches.

TAKE A MOBILE BREAK
AND last stray thoughts on the subject of taking a mobile phone break. It’s been observed that a lot of middle-class Indians and professionals take their mobile phones everywhere from home to office and even to the washroom especially at home early in the morning.
Now, health specialists have warned against spending too much time on the hand phone. Doctors warn that spending long hours surfing on the net while perched on the toilet pot can create major problems. The more you strain the greater the risk of serious anus-rectum problems. The advice from doctors is to stop sitting on the pot for more than 10 minutes. Don’t leave your phone inside the bathroom and don’t time pass on the pot too much with your phone in hand for quick scrolling thinking it’s harmless Me Time. Doctors say this will likely promote the growth of piles and even mental health issues.