Goa Diary

Now the “Pakis” don’t shoot at you. The enemy infantry simply charges at the player like the ill-fated Light Brigade and you can kill them at the click of a mouse. With the thrill and challenge of virtual combat missing, the game is fast being consigned to the dustbins.

However, the game does score a first. No other programmer ever thought of appending the mug of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on the opening credits of a computer game.

`Godfearing’ minister

All ministers make promises which they never intend to keep, right? Goa’s infamous politician Churchill Alemao who holds the tourism portfolio decided to do something different, for once, when asked by a legislator to promisebeautification of the area surrounding the Chandreshwar Bhoothnath temple at Paroda, Quepem, Alemao demurred. “I do not want to be punished by God for failing to fulfill my promise,” he told the amused house.

Travellers’ travails

The tourism industry in Goa may be in the doldrums, but officials in charge of promoting the industry are making merry at public expense.

According to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, tourism ministry officials travelled to six different countries in just one year – 1997 to study tourism promotion there. The favoured destinations include Moscow, London, Berlin, the Persian Gulf countries, Venezuela and South Africa. The cost: Rs 26 lakh.

The tourists who come to Goa are mostly from Britain and Germany and no thanks are due to the government for this.

Tailpiece

Thanks to falling international prices of iron ore, the mining industry in the state is in dire straits. Consequently, mine-owners who were very generous in doling out funds to thepoliticians are tightening their purse-strings. Worried netas in Goa are now raising the spectre of environmental destruction posed by the mines in Goa. Last week Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro went even further. He threatened to crack down on the mining lobbies ostensibly because newspapers owned by some of them were disseminating false propaganda against the Congress!