Indian tourist resort of Goa will not allow the existence of private enclaves created by foreigners, especially Russian and Israeli tourists.
State Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the state legislative assembly that from the coming tourist session starting in October, the monopoly of any area by the foreign nationals will not be tolerated.
There have been many complaints in the past against the presence of so called restricted areas. Most of them are located in the villages in north Goa. Entire neighbourhoods in many of these beach villages have become virtually foreign territories where the entry of locals is banned or heavily restricted.
Foreigners on long visas even business visas have bought rows of houses in particular areas to create such enclaves. There have also been scuffles between locals and foreigners over the issue.
To express his seriousness Parrikar also warned that the hotels and beach shacks, which serve exclusively to foreigners could lose their trade licences. From now on all their signboards have to be in the local language Konkani or English. Currently many of them use only Russian or Hebrew to serve exclusive clients.
The so called foreign enclaves have existed for many years and are the known centres of drug abuse and its trading. Despite many efforts the authorities have not been able to tackle the problem.
Russian and Israeli tourists in particular are known to have all kinds of vices and are known to over indulge when they arrive in large numbers around Christmas and NewYear and disturb the peace of the surrounding areas.
Every year Goa attracts two million tourists many of whom stay for months in their respective enclaves. The session that starts in October lasts up to March.
Courtesy : Press TV
