The Calangute panchayat's decision to rope in bouncers to tackle touts is fraught with risk. The bouncers themselves while discharging their duties could land in the police net for wrongful restraint and illegal confinement. Law and order is a police matter and no institution has the authority to raise private armies to address local issues however grave they may be. The panchayat's contention that its members will go along with the bouncers to identify touts is impractical, touts operate at all hours of the day and night ; who would have the time to accompany bouncers to search for miscreants. The proposed bouncers brigade might become a law unto themselves and dish out vigilante justice to the local populace. Most of the tout menace is caused by police inaction as the Goa Tourism minister himself highlighted. Maybe a special tourist police squad armed with powers of prosecution and arrest be raised to deal with the touts, beggars and hawkers harassing tourists in the coastal belt.
