PANAJI
With the recent rising number incidents of crime against tourists in Goa, the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) has issued a statement that no local or tourist should take the law into their own hands and both need to treat each other respectfully and follow the law of the land (one as a guest, other as a host) and that no one is above the law.
There have been numerous instances of harassment of tourists by touts on the road and on bikes. The police and home department need to look into this and strictly enforce the law and stop such harassment. The police also needs to be sensitized and adequately trained to deal with such situations going forward and enforce the law properly, said TTAG.
Perhaps an empowered tourism police task force in each district / taluka needs to be formed who are directly meant to deal with such situations and are only answerable to the higher ups (DGP / IGP / SP) with no political interference. Proper enforcement of the law should be followed in true spirit by the police and this will only happen when there is no interference from the political dispensation.
There are a lot of good initiatives started by the govt such as single window in waters ports, Goa taxi app, Entrepreneur Transport Schemes etc. These initiatives require proper support from locals and tourists, along with proper implementation and enforcement from govt agencies to be successful. TTAG is in constant dialogue with the government on various tourism related issues and therefore would urge the government to take such measures to make locals as well as tourists feel safe in our state at all times, said the TTAG release.
