Rising crime in Goa hitting tourist footfall, says CM Sawant

Calangute: Admitting for the first time that Goa’s tourism footfall is showing a decline due to increasing crime, chief minister Pramod Sawant appealed to stakeholders, especially in the famed North Goa beach belt, not to take law into their hands as tourists will be scared to visit the sunshine state if there are fights and murders in shacks and restaurants.

“The increasing number of violent incidents involving tourists can have a long term impact on the tourism industry. Rapes and murders have risen in Goa. The impact has been felt as footfall is dropping,” Sawant, who also holds the home portfolio, said on Wednesday.

“The impact lasts for long, even 10-15 years later people will say tourists went to Goa, and they were murdered,” Sawant said.

Over the past two months, Goa has witnessed violent incidents involving tourists and shack staff.

Bhola Ravi Teja, a 28-year-old tourist from Hyderabad was killed in a brutal assault by staff of a shack at Calangute on New Year’s Eve. Police arrested the shack owner, his son, and their employees from Nepal.

In less than a week after this incident, the tourist hotspot had another incident of violent clash between shack staff and tourists.

Six staff of a beach shack were arrested for “attempt to murder” for attacking six Mumbai tourists over a petty issue.

In Jan, further up North, on Arambol beach, a local was killed after he was assaulted by shack staff following a scrap over an arrangement of deck beds laid on the beach.

The shack’s staff from Himachal Pradesh were arrested on the charge of murder while the licence of the shack operator was cancelled, and he was fined.

Beach shacks as well as shacks set up on private properties close to the beach largely rely on manpower from other states. Since only locals are eligible to operate beach shacks, the practice of sub-letting shacks has taken roots over the past two decades.

But it is only this season after incidents of violence between tourists and shack staff, the tourism department started a crackdown on the shacks.

As of last week, 99 beach shacks in North and South Goa were slapped with notices for sub-setting.

Warning against the practice of renting shacks to people from other states, Sawant said, “They (outside operators) bring people from other states to run their businesses. When there is a problem, before talking, they (staff) take a knife and attack. It’s their mindset.”

To tackle the crime involving people from other states, Sawant said govt has taken various initiatives.

“The people who come to Goa, particularly the labour class, their police verification needs to be done. If involved in crimes, they can be traced,” he said.

“All stakeholders must take responsibility. With tourists and people from other states settling down here, Goa has been changing and we have to live with these changes,” Sawant said.

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