One solution that the government has thought of is to provide training to locals, through the newly formed Human Resource Development Corporation, in sweeping, construction, security etc, and further ensure good salaried jobs for them.The government proposes to replace the outsiders currently working in Goa in such areas with the locally trained population, he said.

We Say

While the sentiments are something we can understand and even agree that crime has shot up, our politicians are merely playing to the gallery. Firstly, there's a long-standing feeling in Goa that locals have been overlooked while jobs have gone to outsiders. Which is why, there has always been a market for importing labour. The numbers have gone up exponentially now because construction, migration and related activity has boomed. Big outstation builders even hire architects from India's metros, ignoring better suited-to-the-job local architects. This has a cascading effect even. So, it's not like the rulers have created a space for Goan employment. The Goan has always gone to the Gulf or to the ship to find work. Just look at the mad rush to obtain Portuguese passports by VIPs even.

Secondly, though not very flattering to locals, there's a perception that they are not willing to work hence one has to look for workers across the border. Thirdly, verifying antecedents by activating a section in the CrPC can run into controversy with human rights groups who will stop at nothing once they smell blood. A little over a year ago when four migrants, who allegedly robbed a bank, were gunned down in a flat in a residential area in Chennai, there was a furore. There were stray cases where migrants were labeled 'north Indian' and attacked. The police added to the controversy by insisting that every house owner should furnish details about tenants and every contractor should do likewise. Forms were provided by respective police stations that had to be filled to give migrants' credentials.

Suddenly, the air was vitiated with the police being labeled 'anti-north Indian' by human rights groups and accused of profiling migrants. They were almost compared to the Puritans who made adulterers sew in the letter A in red, as narrated in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 romantic work of fiction. The politicians kept out of the debate because they did not want to stoke their votebanks. Finally, the issue died a natural death but Chennai's construction boom has much to thank migrants for.

On the other hand, there is an air of panic in Kerala ever since 'Saudization' which entails new labour regulations went into effect on March 28. The fear is that if the local work force replaces them, Malayalis will have to catch the first plane back. It could be the end of the Gulf dream for Goans too. So how does one reconcile to being jettisoned from a foreign land with being the person doing the jettisoning here if the CM's promise to replace the outsiders currently working in Goa with the locally trained population is fulfilled? Not only a moral dilemma but also a constitutional conundrum!