Bridges dotting the waterways that crisscross the state are on the verge of collapse thanks to the Public Works Department (PWD). But Goa's Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane has ensured that the opprobrium does not stick to him. For instance, a cash-strapped government could not find sufficient funds to replace the 70-year-old bridge on the Uguem river, which collapsed during last year's monsoon.

Protests by residents on either side of the river proved ineffective and the government was roused from its slumber only this summer, when it woke up to the fact that children residing on the river banks could be cut off from their schools. On the chief minister's orders, personnel from the army's Madras Engineers Corps dismantled an old bailely bridge from elsewhere in the state and "using its serviceable spares" (to quote a government press note), it was reconstructed over the debris of the Ugeum bridge.

A beaming chief minister said the engineering feat had saved the Rs 1 croreit would have taken to construct a new reinforced cement concrete bridge, which would have taken three years to complete.

While the PWD couldn't fulfill its brief, the chief minister earned kudos with a quick-fix remedy.

Chosen Ones

Ministers in Goa, just like elected representatives elsewhere in the country, brook no impertinence from lesser mortals particularly those who throw the rule book at them. Two hapless security guards from Bihar on duty outside the famous De Cathedral who begged to differ found themselves arrested and thrown into a police lock-up without food and water for a whole night.

The incident occurred early this month, when state Forests Minister Carmo Fegado decided to pay obeisance at the place of worship accompanied by his wife and son.

Fegado's family, which tumbled out of their car, grew angry when the security guards asked them to shift their vehicle from the non-parking area outside the church gates. The ministers's wife insisted that no `outsider' would dictateterms to her, a native of Goa. To prove who was boss, the minister's son, Brian Fegado, got the two guards arrested and locked up through the night even as an ailing Fegado Seniorr looked on. Goes to show where temporal powers lie.

Tailpiece

Timely police action last week prevented what could have become Goa's first samadhi in a residential colony. When Pandit Sachidanand Swami passed away at the ripe old age of 80, his followers decided to bury the swami's body in the compound of the Housing Board Colony at Margao where he lived.However, the residents had other ideas. When the baba's followers, numbering more than a hundred, gathered at his `ashram' to carry out what they called his last wish, the police were called in. Tight police bandobust ensured that tension between the baba's devotees and residents did not get out of hand.

Meanwhile, in the thick of the night, when belligerent persons from both camps slumbered on, the police armed with an order from the South Goa collector, cremated themortal remains of Pandit Sachidanand Swami at the Margao crematorium. If only the civil authorities elsewhere in the country display similar presence of mind.

Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.