In Goa there’s always a good reason for drink and drive or get drunk and ride. The excuses are late night parties, cheap alcohol, flashy Goan Catholic weddings, destination for luxury weddings, Carnival, Christmas and New Year parties, lack of enough taxis to drive you home at night and of course, the undeniable all-season reason of social drinking.
Neelam Carol tells us how it’s so difficult to drink and drive in the UK since it attracts fines, imprisonment, cancellation of licence and even deportation. But Goa is a free capital to party, drink at night or jive at a Goan wedding, down some whiskeys and scotch and drive home drunk, sometimes from Sangolda to even Cuncolim thereby endangering the lives of other commuters on the road.
“Our teams actually check through the night for drunken driving and we check people at Naka bandhi and all often they give us the slip,” explains P I Shirvaiker attached to the Traffic Police Cell at Margao.
Similarly Dharmesh Angle, DYSP, Traffic Cell explains that traffic police are the only ones who have breath analysers with them to check drunken driving.
But Sattyawan Bhivshet, Superintendent of Excise, clarifies that Excise Department doesn’t look into serving of alcohol. Neither has the traffic cell ever drafted any communication for a joint operation.
