Former Tourism Minister Mickky Pacheco does not know to live in a civil society, ideal place for him is behind bars. -- By Nisser Dias

A ‘WhatsApp’ video recording of Mickky Pacheco driving on the beach at Consua, Utorda has gone viral. That while driving on the beach he drove over a para-gliding chute and damaged it causing loss to the owner.

We need to give credit to Melroy D’silva for having shot the video of the Mickky’s vehicle and then confronted him and his goons.

The abusive former Tourism minister and also a jail-bird Mickky Pacheco driving on the beach is not one-off incident. It happens on a daily basis along the Benaulim – Colva stretch of the beach but the Tourism department, the tourist police, traffic police and the police just close their eyes to this blatant violation.

During the fag end of December 2017, traditional fisherman 73 years old Manuel Crasto who was fishing at Sernabatim beach was knocked down by a speeding vehicle driven by a daughter of a businessman from Benaulim. Another 2 young girls and 3 boys were also occupants in the Thar vehicle. Manuel is bed-ridden since then as the impact caused severe damage to his spinal cord. Fishermen who gathered and even removed the key of vehicle informed that there were alcohol bottles in the vehicle but the police did nothing to book the culprits.

Water sports operators, shack owners and even fishermen use vehicles on the beach but no

authority including the south Goa Collector, south Goa Superintendent of the police, both, who have sweeping powers in running the district do nothing  and thus have miserably failed in their duties to save the life and property.

Coming back to the Manuel case, the police allowed the youngsters driving on the beach in the dead of night to go scot free as they promised to pay Rs. 4 lakhs as compensation to the injured.

It was the duty of the police to check whether the youngsters were driving under the influence of alcohol, whether all of them were major in age to be out during that time of the night. One of boys happens to the son of the Colva panch member. No case was ever registered by the Colva police.

Colva police completely failed in their duties to uphold the law in the case which have emboldened others to drive on the beach. We all know the reason why the police look the other way, it is simply because the police are corrupt and are bribed to do so. As an old saying goes, “Police do not protect the people who pay their wages but protect those who pay them bribes.” This very much holds true in this case and also in the case of Mickky driving on the beach.

Verna police have merely registered a non-cognizable offence against Mickky initially but subsequently realizing their folly added cognizable sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC). We all know that the police for some years now not only bend forward for individuals in power but also to individuals who have been stripped of power by the people so also to those who are likely to come to power.

I had personally brought it to the notice of the District Collector Anjali Shekawat that vehicles are being driven on the Salcete coastal belt and that the Tourism Department claiming that it is the duty of the district administration to monitor it as they have issued orders banning it. Her only action was that she sent me a copy of her predecessor’s order banning the movement of the vehicles on the beach with the exception of vehicles being used by life saving agency (Dhristi) and beach cleaning agency through ‘WhatsApp’. With that she washed off her hands of the issue.

It would be better if we talk even less of the incompetent south Goa Superintendent of Police Arvind Gawas. When I brought Manuel Crasto case to his notice, his words were if the aggrieved party does not want to file a case what can the police do? When asked why police cannot register the case ‘Suo motto’, SP Gawas request was amusing he had asked me to convince Crasto family to lodge a complaint.

Nisser Dias

Finally going to the beach for cool and fresh air and to relax or to see children running about without a care in the world seems to be over if individuals like Mickky are allowed to drive on the beach as the former Tourism minister simply does not know to live in a civil society and the ideal place for him is behind bars.

Have we forgotten his involvement in shack burning case or the assault on KTC driver and electricity department engineer for which he was convicted and served jail term while he was an MLA.

Such individuals or rather a convicted felon with no standing in the society and who cannot tread the right side of the law and always in conflict with law should not be allowed in a civil society.