THE legislators and ministers of Goa must have felt embarrassed after the Home Minister, Mr Ravi Naik placed the names of the politicians facing criminal charges on the table of the Assembly on Tuesday.

The fact that 16 cases of serious nature of crime have been filed against the politicians has indeed come as a surprise. But what was more shocking was the revelation that all the cases were still under investigation. The Goa police has not chargesheeted any one of them and put them on trial. This reflects poorly of the performance and professionalism of the state police. A politician’s involvement in criminal cases is not a new thing. But the charges of attempt to murder and cheating do not provide any political credence to their action. Whether they were genuine or filed out of political rivalry or vengeance, only a speedy investigation is the right mechanism to clear the suspicion and charge. The police should not sit over the cases without any justifiable reason. Allowing the cases to linger would only strengthen the people’s perception that the government intends to use the cases against those politicians for its own advantage. The government or the police must not leave any scope for such speculation. In the interest of justice, it is imperative that the cases be promptly probed and the guilty politicians penalised. By prolonging the cases the government would be accused of allowing an offender to survive and thrive at the cost of law-abiding people. The government must act in the greater interest of the state and its people. The government must realise that delaying the probe would only erode its credibility and malign its public image.