Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, in a bid to tackle the growing drug menace, on Tuesday mooted strict vigil on riffraff tourists coming only to push drugs in the coastal State, while the Opposition Congress retaliated by demanding that Mr. Parsekar himself needs to be “put behind bars” for failing to tackle the proliferation of drugs in his own coastal constituency of Mandrem in north Goa.
Some international enclaves of drug pushers are feared to manifest the Goan north coastal belt especially during tourist season.
Asked for his response to the concern voiced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday in his third 'Mann Ki Baat' programme on radio over the "devastating" drug addiction menace, asking society as well as
the government to work together to fight this problem, Mr. Parsekar, on the sidelines of a function in the city, told presspersons that he was fully in agreement that there was a drug abuse on the Goan coast.
He went on say that the government has been working to curb the same and pointed to the seizure of drugs last year which was more than the quantum seized in previous ten years.
He, however, said that some tourists purely come for pushing drugs and they were not beneficial to the State in terms of revenue. The government will tighten vigil on the coast on such tourists.
Mr. Parsekar said that the Prime Minister had identified the ill perfectly and his government will support the drive against drugs.
Congress spokesperson Sunil Kavthankar and former Congress MLA from coastal Calangute Agnelo Fernandes, however, lashed out at the Chief Minister for suggesting vigil on tourists instead of strengthening his mechanism to tackle drugs and corruption.
“In Anjuna and Wagatore belt, some Nigerians are openly selling drugs, some restaurants are known to blatantly push drugs in the evening. When in Opposition, they (BJP) were shouting against live electronic music parties, now they are allowing 2-2 parties on beaches instead of one. We are not against parties, but government is not serious to put mechanism in place to ensure that such parties do not become venues of drug abuse,” said Mr. Fernandes.
Mr. Kavthankar accused the Chief Minister and other BJP MLAs of coastal constituencies of being “part and parcel of the drug trade.” He demand Mr. Parsekar’s arrest as his constituency continues to proliferate in drug abuse.
