MARGAO: Saying that Morjim is now known as “little Moscow” and Arambol could well known as “little Tel Aviv”, former Union Minister Eduardo Faleiro has called upon the state government to scrutinize all land deals by foreigners and confiscate the property and punish the offender.

“Thousands of foreigners have bought lakhs of square meters of land all across Goa. The National Security Council Secretariat has cautioned that real estate projects in Goa by foreigners might include drug trafficking, gun running and prostitution that some foreign drug cartels are attempting to turn Goa into a base for their activities”, he said.

Saying that the economic benefits as well as the social costs of the tourism industry need to be evaluated, it is necessary to formulate a development approach which provides employment to the local people whilst being less dependent on tourism.