In a democracy there can be no room to foment VIP culture. With the red beacon now gone, it’s time to stop all that money from being squandered on providing police security for Ministers and their kin.
Politicians who are apprehensive about their personal safety should either hire their own personal body guards or fade away from public life. Ministers and officials should also lead by example and stop violating the traffic rules by not over speeding with their official vehicles.
In 2012 Manohar Parrikar had vowed that he would not use police escort vehicles. But soon after becoming Chief Minister he started moving around, initially with one Pilot jeep and then added another one. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has gone a step further and is being escorted by three jeeps. Such criminal waste of public funds cannot be allowed. The Police personnel ought to be deployed for street policing and not to hover around the Politicians in power.
Public funds cannot be squandered on security of Ministers and VIPs. The taxpayers’ money needs to be rightly spent for the public good and more particularly on upgrading the Health, Education and Housing infrastructure.
On a priority the government must ensure that there is proper internet connectivity across Goa so that the online classes of students are not hampered and the public can also avail of the government and other services that are available online.
