SPITTING FIRE ON
NORTH INDIANS
Said Vijai Sardesai at Goa Biz Fest ...
* Today, we have almost six times population of Goa coming as tourists
* Those tourists are not top end tourists; they are also scum of the earth
* British tourists have gone away. Now we are dependent on North Indians
* They are not bothered about Goa. They want to create Haryana in Goa
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PANAJAI: Town and Country Planning and Agriculture Minister, Vijai Sardesai, has said that tourists coming to Goa are scum of the earth as they are not responsible and they are not top-end tourists. Sardesai was speaking at the Goa Biz Fest at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in Bambolim.
Sardesai said, “Chief Minister is pushing to increase tourists coming into Goa. Today, we have almost six times population of Goa coming as tourists. Those tourists are not top end tourists; they are also scum of the earth. Are they responsible? They are not.”
He continued, “If you compare Goans to people in the rest of India, we have high per capita income and we have social and political consciousness. We are much superior to people, who are coming in.”
Sardesai lamented that the British tourists are going away. He said, “The British (tourists) have gone away. And, now we are dependent upon the North Indians and this is what they do. They are not bothered about Goa. They want to create Haryana in Goa.”
Over the last decade, Russians have dominated the segment of foreign tourists in Goa, while the number of British tourists hasn’t grown at a high rate. Sardesai called it putting all the eggs in one basket.
He further said, “When we had an event on green buildings, they said they have been given incentives in the form of floor-area-ratio (FAR) for green buildings in Uttar-Pradesh. Same happens in Punjab and Haryana. I said we will consider incentivising green buildings but not because those states are doing so. Those states are responsible for problems Goa has today. People coming from those states want to recreate Haryana in Goa, which shouldn’t be the case. Goa is different, our identity is unique. We have to have our own model of development. That model can’t be similar to Gujarat model or some other model.”
Sardesai also said that the state government has to work towards giving facilities to the tourists or else they wouldn’t come to Goa.
He said, “We have to accept that when you are calling 1.2 crore tourists into the state, you will have to give them facilities. If you don’t give them facilities, they wouldn’t come here. There are better places to go.”
Sardesai continued, “There is a place called Kandy in Sri Lanka, which was ravaged by Tsunami. They thought the only way they could beat Goa was by having good waste management. Today, you see all tourists, who are old or handicapped, in Kandy. They are doing what we should have.”
