erry to Tar-Siolim
for the five-day Ganesh immersion ceremony. An MLA,
sarpanchas of two village panchayats and over angry 200
people prevented the movement of the ferry. The
correspondent promptly sent the report and the item
could only find place in the lower portion of page 7,
normally reserved for routine and unimportant news items.

The controversy then erupted again for the nine-day
Ganesh immersion ceremony, when authorities finally
shifted the lone ferry from the Tuyem-Camurlim route to
Siolim. Commuters were unhappy to travel by the free
canoe service, while those travelling in vehicles were
forced to take a lengthy detour. On the other hand,
people in Siolim had the luxury of a ferry to assist
them in a religious ceremony. The correspondent sent me
the report but, this time, the item was published on
page 4, normally reserved for stories which have been
continued from page 1. Incidentally, six of the eight
news items which appeared on page 3 -- the most popular
'inside' page for Goa news -- were Margao-based news
items. "At least, you people carried the ferry story. I
sent the same story to my newspaper. But I did not find
my story anywhere in the paper the next day," remarked
an unhappy correspondent of another newspaper.

Newspaper authorities tend to justify this
'City-Centric Syndrome' by claiming that their readers
are concentrated in and around cities and towns and,
hence, an urban-based report would generate more
interest than a remote village-based story. To accept
this argument would be similar to assume that a
nutritional and tasty meal is possible merely with a
generous portion of rice, minus the curry, vegetables
and other side dishes.

Reports by rural correspondents add spice, flavour and
variety to a newspaper. It is no wonder that the
popularity of vernacular papers in Goa has been largely
due to the quality and quantity of local stories, both
from urban and rural areas.

Different standards adopted with rural correspondents
can be quite effective to confuse and demoralise them.
In one incident, a rural correspondent sent me a report
stating that a building constructed by a firm and owned
by an MLA, was being built barely metres from a high
tension pole. A labourer while at work accidentally
came in contact with the live wires and was seriously
injured. Though a police complaint was filed against
the firm and not the MLA, the correspondent was keen to
establish the link since sinc