MARGAO: Colva Police today registered a case against Sucorro Falcao and four others following a complaint lodged that they had assaulted one GoaMiles taxi driver at Colva besides damaging his vehicle. Police claimed to have identified all the assailants but were not willing to disclose where they hail from.
Tension gripped Colva this morning when a number of GoaMiles taxis parked within the compound of Colva Residency and the local taxi drivers taking umbrage to this, gathered their family members and also contacted local MLA Churchill Alemao who rushed to the site where Colva panchayat members had also gathered.
The crowd of over 50 managed to drive away the GoaMiles taxis from the compound of Colva Residency and Churchill pointed out that GoaMiles taxis cannot park anywhere but have to only come to pick a customer and leave the place after dropping a passenger.
He alleged that somebody from the Tourism Department has in a “patently illegal” letter asked the management of Colva Residency to permit GoaMiles taxis to park in their premises. “This is a clear case of corruption as I am sure GoaMiles has bribed this person,” said Churchill.
He demanded that GoaMiles taxis should not be allowed in Colva as tourism was promoted in Goa in 1989 so that Goans could benefit from it.
“The around 200 taxi owners from Colva, the shack owners and others are the true Goans who are benefitting from tourism and if we allow GoaMiles whose vehicles are driven by migrants, the very few Goans surviving in the State will disappear,” he said.
“How are Goans going to survive if migrants are going to take over the little business that they are conducting,” he asked adding that this is the very reason why Goans are opting for Portuguese nationality to earn their living in the Western world.
He said he will call on the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant before the Assembly session and present him all documents to show how Goans are discriminated. While Goan taxi owners have to produce their domicile and necessarily have a badge to operate a taxi, none of these are made applicable to the drivers of GoaMiles vehicles.
After the discussion at Colva Residency and after the Goa Miles vehicles were driven away the crowd dispersed. However, some of them noticed one GoaMiles vehicle still loitering around and the same was damaged with its rear windscreen totally smashed.
However, as the driver of the vehicle Aspak Shaikh from Housing Board later complained to the police that he was assaulted police have booked a case against five persons all hailing from Colva under Sections 143, 341, 504, 336, 427, 506(2) read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code for endangering life or safety of others, mischief and criminal intimidation.
One GoaMiles driver Mohamad Wasim alleged that Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao slapped him, a charge stoutly denied by Churchill who pointed out that there were many people present at Colva to witness what had happened.
