PANJIM: Reacting to apprehensions of the tour operators, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the government will not tolerate any incidents like taxi operators taking law into their hands and added that the police have been directed to take action in this matter.
He said dadagiri won’t be tolerated.
He made this statement during his meeting with the enraged tour operators handling cruise tourists, who warned that if the incidents like the one Mormugao Port continue, then Goa will lose out on the business.
They warned that the business will be grabbed by other ports on the west coast.
They demanded a dedicated taxi counter at the harbour as the taxi operators have been found fleecing tourists.
Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte and Deputy Inspector General of Police Bosco George were present.
They demanded immediate action against unscrupulous elements for giving a bad name to Goa tourism.
Otto De Oliveira Fernandes, ( better known as Otto) proprietor of International Travel Bureau said, “We have been having small minor issues with the taxi drivers in the past but never in the past tourists have been almost assaulted and held hostage at the harbour.”
“Because of a bunch of taxi drivers the entire tourism industry is being held to ransom,” he added.
“Passengers are being fleeced in dollars. Now, we are getting feedback that Goa is not a safe destination and we may lose out on tourism in the future,” Fernandes warned.
Francis Vaz representing Le Passage to India Pvt Ltd said, “Even after requests to the police, the guests were made to walk for a kilometre. We had to refund the money and the ship captain has said that they will never come back to Goa.”
Deepak Lotlikar, CEO of Travelsmith Adventure Pvt. Ltd informed that the incident was a threat to the lives and safety of the tourists. “The incident has hit the image of Goa hard. The local authority has to take immediate steps to stop this from happening,” he said.
Tourism Minister Khaunte said, “The incident of stopping tourists is unacceptable. I lay my apologies to the people who suffered, but in the future this will not be tolerated. We are putting up a counter and queue system at the harbour.”
“It is tourists’ prerogative to decide the mode of transport and to avoid these incidents in the future, we expect more coordination between the tourism and police,” Khaunte added.
