Here is a strong stand taken by the government to identify and crack down on all restaurants and eateries that are being run by foreign nationals along the beaches of Goa without the required permissions. As admitted by the minister for Food and Drugs Administration, there are a number of foreign nationals involved in the restaurant business along the coast without the permission of the FDA. The minister’s reasoning is that if the local businessmen have to adhere to all the stringent rules of running businesses, why shouldn’t the foreign nationals be made to do the same?
A sound argument, and one that probably should have come a long time ago, long before the businesses increased in number. In the coming weeks, as Goa rushes towards the high tourist season, FDA teams with police protection are expected to be out there sealing restaurants on the beaches of Goa.
There, however, arises a question. If the rules in force are for all, how come there exist restaurants being run by foreigners in Goa without permissions? According to the minister, they are flourishing despite not possessing permissions. How did the administration allow this to happen? It is obvious that there has been a slip-up that has allowed the foreigners to run the businesses. Yet, no foreign national would have the gumption to run a business illegally, if he or she had not been assured of some form of protection from a local body or a group that pretends to have political influence.
So, this has to be a multi-pronged operation. While FDA acts on the foreigners operating the businesses, other arms of the government should also get into the act and identify the so-called ‘protectors’ of these business, because it is inconceivable that they can exist without some kind of an illegal security system. In fact, announcing in advance that there is a crackdown in the offing gives the ‘protectors’ ample time to take adequate precautions to escape the clean-up that the FDA is prepping up for. There has to be stringent planning so that nobody slips through the net.
Foreigners running businesses in Goa is not a new phenomenon, but has possibly been in practice for decades, right from the time of the hippie influx into the State in the 1960s that later led to the Wednesday flea market being set up at Anjuna. This market, a fair actually, was mainly meant for the foreign tourists in the State to sell off their wares, which they did, either because they were bankrupt and had no money to even return home, or to unload themselves of the possessions before leaving for their home country. In later years, the flea market transformed into a weekly bazaar for mainly Indian wares to be sold to the tourists – foreign and local – with less foreign tourists seated behind the makeshift counters.
This clean-up operation has been long overdue and has to also ensure that the illegal restaurants and eateries do not open up again in the coming months or in the next season, by taking the form of legal businesses using a local person as a front, while the foreign nationals continue to run the operations. Sustained action against such illegal business is the only manner in which the unlawful trend can be stopped. A one-time action will not suffice to keep the illegalities away. But, it is not just the foreigners who are involved in unlawful running of businesses, there are locals too who also plunge into such activities. Can these too be brought under the scanner so as to rid the coastal area of all illegitimate businesses at one go?
