All talk and no walk

The frenzied pace at which press conferences were being called and the high-pitch slandering that was going on between the local units of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the youth wing of its big brother Congress, led one to believe that the battle was poised for a grand finish.
But now, it seems like there won't be a finale and the victims of last year's Canacona floods won't get to see the colour of the money collected in their name by the rogues we have for politicians - both young and old.
For the last fortnight almost, a high-pitched tu-tu-mein-mein was witnessed between second rung leaders of the NCP and the Goa Pradesh Youth Congress over what the former alleged was a 'scam' perpetrated by the latter in raising money for the Canacona flood victims and siphoning off the proceeds.
The spokesman, deputy chief spokesman and chief spokesman of the NCP swore that they would file a complaint against GPYC chief Sankalp Amonkar. The party's executive committee even passed a resolution, saying it would file the police complaint. But now it turns out there will be no such complaint filed.
If a complaint has to be filed, then for heaven's sake, file it. Don't just talk about it.
When Manohar Parrikar docked Mauvin Godinho in the power subsidy scam, he didn't merely talk, he walked. The political arena could well do with more such walkers, at least among the fresher faces, rather than profession-less, jobless talkers who have in recent years clogged the space in Goa's political parties.

False alarm
Perhaps for the first time, the Goa Football Association meeting saw near 100 per-cent attendance and there's a story behind how it happened.
Apparently, with elections for control of the football governing body raising the bar following the high-profile entry into the fray of industrialist and boss of Goa's top football club, Srinivas Dempo, some minion thought of playing a prank, and it worked.
All the top guns rushed to the GFA executive committee meet, which incidentally was one of the most insignificant ones with almost nothing of note on the agenda. The reason? Fear of being disqualified from the polls slated for Ocotber!
Sources told us that a day before the GFA executive meeting, one member from the Bardez Zone called Jaju Fernandes, known to be a close aide in football matters of current GFA boss Joaquim Alemao, warning that he would file a complaint to disqualify those who abstained from three consecutive meetings from contesting the October election.
The call sent alarm bells ringing and the following day the GFA achieved a record feat: near 100 % attendance at its executive meet, Dempo and all!

‘Fear Factor’ blackout
The film shooting team of TV reality show 'Fear Factor' kept everyone in a remote ward of a Salcete village in the dark, literally.
Last Thursday, residents of Loutolim's Vanxem ward found their locality plunged in pitch darkness, an unusual scenario what with them represented by Aleixo Sequeira, the man who heads the power department. When some of these residents approached the local electricity department office, the linesman on duty told them that the lights weren't switched on because of a shoot scheduled in a house for the famed TV show - 'Fear Factor'. But Assistant Engineer Sontosh Lolayankar denied having given any such instruction when the locals contacted him on his mobile phone.
Local panchayat member Sergio Fernandes, flooded as he was by complaints from the residents of the ward, was livid over the episode. It was also gathered that no licence/permission had been obtained from the authorities  to conduct the shoot. 
The Loutolim panchayat authorities too were in the dark and the panchayat secretary revealed that no permission has been issued to the film unit. Officials at the ESG,  the nodal agency authorised to permit film shootings in the state, claimed that they too were in the dark. A 'fear factor' indeed!