JOSEPH PINTO | NT
Calangute: People from the coastal belt of North Goa expressed their anguish over tourists coming and frolicking on beaches without following the norms issued in the wake of the worsening COVID situation. The villagers complained that the tourists, who have resumed coming in hordes to Goa after state borders were thrown open, are not wearing face masks and not keeping to social distancing norm.
Pertinently, the COVID test is not mandatory for the tourists, which has heightened COVID fears among the locals.
The locals said that tourists are coming to Calangute and Baga beaches in hordes in their own vehicles. They are mostly from four states – Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The visitors are milling about the beaches freely throwing the COVID norms to the winds.
The tourists are creating nuisance on the beaches and at car parking lots, the villagers said, alleging that some of the tourists are defecating at open spaces despite the existence of public toilets.
It appears that the visitors are law unto themselves, as there is no police deployment on the beaches, the locals maintained.
Filipe D’Souza of Calangute said, “A large number of tourists were seen drinking openly and defecating in open spaces. A traffic policeman was seen at the Calangute ‘tinto’ (village square). But there were no cops – neither on the beach nor at the car parking lot.”
However, tourist police PI Souraj Divkar said the tourist policemen have not yet been deployed on the beaches, as they have been shifted to the Mapusa police station for COVID-related duty.
Be that as it may, the unruly tourists have raised the hackles of the locals.
Alex Fernandes was bitter about the tourists drinking openly and throwing garbage everywhere.
Souraj Naik, a car parking lot contractor, said the vehicles carrying tourists are coming mostly from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
“They are having a whale of a time… They are drinking openly. The drunk tourists are lying on the beach. Tourists are defecating openly at the car parking lot, although there are public toilets in the vicinity,” Naik said.
Lifeguards at the Calangute beach also said that tourists are venturing into the rough sea despite announcements being made
not to do so. “Tourists are not listening to us. They are getting into the rough sea. They are not wearing masks and are not keeping to the social distancing norm,” the lifeguards complained.
Calangute traffic cell PI Salim Shaikh said the inflow of the tourists on the weekend threw the vehicular traffic out of gear at Baga and Calangute beaches.
