Editor, Goemkarponn
AERIAL VIEW
Of late, the Goa government is on an overdrive to stop illegalities on the coast like the watersports operators overcharging and shack owners encroachments, but what is the Tourism Department doing to stop the illegalities like the dance bars or touts and brutalities of bouncers.
The SELF-STYLED Tourism Minister of Goa, Rohan Khaunte, spoke a lot about this when he was in the Opposition but is shockingly mum when he himself is the Tourism Minister. Instead, his focus seems to be somewhere else.
We haven’t seen him visit the coastal areas to enquire about the dance bars, bouncers or touts. Why Mr Khaunte?
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
On Sunday, Goa woke up to a shocking incident of a brutal assault on a Delhi couple in Goa. The tourists were allegedly assaulted with swords and knives.
For over a year now, there have been frequent incidents of tourists being looted and assaulted by the dance bar employees, bouncers and so on, but there seems to be no action coming from the State government.
Locals in the coastal areas lament that the thrashing and looting of tourists have become a regular affair, and most of them do not even complain as they fear getting stuck in a legal tangle.
Goa is a state heavily dependent on Tourism, and domestic tourists are a significant form of tourism in Goa. Also, we need to understand that during COVID, domestic tourists saved Goa from bankruptcy.
Now such rude behaviour against domestic tourists will drive them away to places like Kerala, the Sindhudurg area and Uttarakhand.
The day Maharashtra liberalises the liquor policy in coastal areas, Goa tourism will go for a toss as we have often treated domestic tourists as “Second Class Citizens”.
Agreed, domestic tourists create a nuisance by cooking on the roadside, dancing on the streets in underwear, and getting drunk, but not all tourists are like that.
The Anjuna Couple who were beaten up did not commit any such mistake.
Of late, the Goa government is on an overdrive to stop illegalities on the coast like the watersports operators overcharging and shack owners encroachments, but what is the Tourism Department doing to stop the illegalities like the dance bars or touts and brutalities of bouncers.
The SELF-STYLED Tourism Minister of Goa, Rohan Khaunte, spoke a lot about this when he was in the Opposition but is shockingly mum when he himself is the Tourism Minister. Instead, his focus seems to be somewhere else.
We haven’t seen him visit the coastal areas to enquire about the dance bars, bouncers or touts. Why Mr Khaunte?
When the entire Calangute-Baga coastal areas youth were up in their arms against the illegalities, cases were slapped against them. Should we say the government itself is promoting illegalities in the form of dance bars?
Instead of troubling the local businesses like taxis, watersports, and shacks, the Tourism Department could do well to have a helpline or an app for tourists who are in distress like the Delhi couple.
Goa government recently started taking photographs of the two-wheeler riders breaking the law. That may be a good ploy to reduce accidents, but why not have the same for tourism.
Why not have policemen in plain clothes to keep a check on the touts and pimps who lure the tourists into dance bars, where they are cheated and looted?
The Tourism department, instead of doing roadshows abroad and spending crores of rupees, must concentrate first on trying to put its house in order. We must retain what we have and then try to get more international tourists.
Otherwise, there is a saying in Konkani, “Bappay Na ani Pudvey Na”.
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