Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: The growing number of incidents of disruptive behavior on Goa’s beaches, which have generated a lot of conversation among influencers and other social media users due to their potential to damage the brand, appears to have seeped into the collective consciousness of police and tourism department officials.
A total of Rs 55.41 lakh has been fined to 1,157 touts by the State during the past three years. In addition, during the same three years, 792 additional people were arrested and fined a total of Rs 15 lakh for causing nuisances and publicly consuming alcohol on beaches.
In a written response to Digambar Kamat, Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte provided this information to the Goa Legislative Assembly. He stated that the touts who engaged in illicit beach business and harassed tourists with aggressive marketing were fined Rs 5,000 apiece.
Due to their refusal to pay the fines and compound the offenses, forty of the arrested touts still have cases pending prosecution by their local police stations.
Thus, 309 touts were booked in 2022 and 430 in 2023, according to Khaunte. According to him, 35 cases were reported in January of this year, compared to 351 cases booked last year.
According to Khaunte, 12 of them received fines of up to Rs 5,000, 16 others had to pay Rs 2,000, and two received an astounding Rs 12,000, depending on how serious the offenses were.
According to Khaunte, six people were also detained and facing charges in South Goa for operating motor vehicles on the region’s beaches.
Additionally, 792 visitors were fined Rs 15.84 lakh for consuming alcohol in public on South Goan beaches.
