Given that the massage parlours are running their illegal businesses quite openly did it require an announced drive to take action against these illegal businesses? This should have been part of a routine drive of the police, and not a special announced one. Ironically, after the first raid, the police have admitted that many such parlours have shut down after the chief minister announced the drive against them. The advance warning, this indicates, acted as an alert to these illegal establishments to down shutters and avoid the raid. It would have worked better had the authorities swung into action without any announcement. Yet, that some such businesses did keep their shutters open and were raided again illustrates that they were brazenly ready to defy the authorities.
Let’s take the example of the parlour that was raided. The odd feature is that the first day turned up one raid of this parlour that was, as per information released by the police, operating illegally for four years. The questions that arise from this are how come this parlour managed to remain in operation for four years when it was illegal? Didn’t it come under the scanner of the law enforcement agencies or of the licensing authorities even once in the past years? It defies explanation as to how such a business remained in operation for such a long period without coming under the scanner. It indicates that the illegal businesses are well planned. For that matter, the parlour that was raided was found to have an exit at the back that allowed the patrons to escape in case of an ‘emergency’ which can only be a raid by the police.
Yet, as per the police the raided premises had no permissions from the Health Department, Goa State Pollution Control Board, no trade licence, no shop establishment certificate, yet it was in operation for four years. This is unbelievable and this can only be possible if there is some form of political patronage, for surely a business like this in a highly popular and frequented tourism belt, where police patrolling is at the highest, could not have gone unnoticed for 48 long months. This also calls for another probe, as to how many businesses in the beach belt are being run without any permission. This cannot be the only such establishment that has no licences. For every business that is run without a licence, the local authority is also not earning any revenue. It brings to mind the survey undertaken by the Margao Municipal Council that had found a number of business establishments running without licences. There is perhaps need of such a survey across the State.
Yet, while the crackdown on massage parlours shows that the government is serious in taking action against them, the timing of the clean-up operation is suspect as it comes after the tourism season has ended and when many such illegal businesses may have downed shutters. If at all there was some seriousness in acting against such establishments then the action should have come at the height of the tourist season, when the business for these establishments would have been booming. At this time, such action will only succeed in tackling a small number of such parlours. This therefore should not result in being mere eyewash. An end to the illegal massage parlours has to be put and this operation will be successful only if this happens. Anything less than that will only amount to playing to the galleries. The seriousness of the move will be determined if the illegal massage parlours are all stopped.
