[IAC#RG]

SORROWING LIES OUR GOA

By Aires Rodrigues

Goa once the Paradise of the East is now a lawless State with the law of the jungle thriving for those politically well connected. The blatant ongoing land filling and hill cutting with political patronage is only adding to Goa's vows. These are well planned crimes against nature and should be dealt with firmly. The guilty should not be spared. The law has to be deterrent and punitive. The violators must be compelled to restore the damaged fields and hills to its original contour.  

Is it not an irony that if you are found with beef in Maharashtra you cool your heels in jail for five long years but you can ruthlessly cut the hills in Goa besides merrily filling the fields and one year's imprisonment is the maximum punishment that the law currently provides for such gross ecological damage done?

This only reminds us of the phrase "the law is an ass"  popularized by Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.