It’s tough being a cop in Goa now. And even tougher to be atough cop. The clean-up man of Anjuna, Vijay Singh, was moved out as SP NorthGoa, in the middle of his intense crackdown against the drug lobby.
Barely three months into his job, Singh was translatingChief Minister Parrikar’s declared vision of zero tolerance against corruptionand other illegalities, which included the rampant drug and prostitution tradein the notorious Anjuna belt.
The Goan, on the basis of visible happiness and support to thisbraveheart SP by the locals of Anjuna, backed his initiative. We quote from aparagraph of our story, “Finally, Goa dares Anjuna”, in the December 1 edition,a reflection of how Anjuna functions as a separate lawless republic. “The NorthGoa SP has admitted, in a police-public meeting that the controversial police stationof Anjuna has miserably failed to curb drug menace in the village.”
While the Chief Minister commended him for his action, thisbonhomie was too good to last. The patron saint of most activities in Anjuna,Dayanand Mandrekar, the Honourable Minister of Water Resources, found this SPan aberration. His trusted lieutenants, namely the controversial owner ofCurlie’s shack Edwin Nunes, who Vijay Singh thrashed in public, swung into actionto restore their version of law and order. It is known that Mandrekar prevailedupon the CM to get Singh removed. The CM gives credit to the merit of the officerbut says that he had demoralised the lower level force by ordering suspensions ofconstables. This is true. Singh indeed had suspended lower level constabularyand told locals to report to him of wrong doing by the police.
Singh’s removal will not just be a setback to the firstattempt to sanitise the drug and prostitution laden Anjuna belt, whose localssuffer incessant music and noise outside their homes, adjoining bars likeCurlie’s, UV bar and Hippies. Tragically, these forces wield more power thanjust an upright IPS officer who was doing his job. He lost this positionbecause he was officially doing too much and too soon for the powercontrollers, including the local police.
While a step by step cleansing could have been the desired route,Anjuna is too far gone for soft treatment. It needs an operation. The gooddoctor Vijay Singh’s removal also flies in the face of this government’spromise that police transfers will be immune to political interference.
Some things never change.
