CANACONA: Marle residents are agitated that their reputation, and that of their village, are being maligned due to liquor being smuggled across their border to Karnataka by people, who don’t even live there but obtained excise licences to run bars.
But these bars do not operate. You cant even get a soda there. But the licence comes in “handy” for liquor transportation.
At a meeting of the villagers on Friday morning, it was pointed out that the Excise department has issued licences to four parties to operate bars in Marle.
“The licences have been obtained with the ulterior motive to procure stock for the said bar and then smuggle it to Karnataka,” said Kusta Gaonkar a former panch of Poinguinim village.
“We are teetotallers, who do not even bring chicken in our village, let alone consume it. Not a single villager is involved in the said illegal act. That is our tradition and we want to keep it intact,” Gaonkar said.
Marle is part of Poinguinim village panchayat situated close to the Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary with a population of around 300 of whom 200 are registered voters who had boycotted the last Lok Sabha elections as their demand for a road to their village was not met. Incidentally, this backward area does not have any public transport nor does anybody use mobile phones here as there is no network.
“Smuggling has not stopped even after a crackdown on the smugglers by Karnataka Excise officials. We have been seeing these activities since our childhood,” another local resident Krishna Gaonkar said.
“But now this illicit trade is damaging our dignity and pride,” Gaonkar said, pointing out that his family has been living there for about 400 years.
The Canacona police had seized alcohol worth Rs 10 lakh last week, which was later handed over to the Excise Department. The operation was spearheaded by DySP Tikam Singh Varma (IPS) who led the Canacona police team in raiding three illicit dens operating near the Goa-Karnataka border.
