HERALD: What efforts have Goa Police taken to curb the menace of prostitution and drugs in Calangute?
Chandan Chowdhary, IPS: Regular drives are being are conducted by Calangute police personnel. Approximately 9 to 10 cases of NDPS and numbers of cases are booked under ITP Act and also recently, two cases have been booked against two females for soliciting customers. The footfall in Calangute is very high and hence we have to be very careful. In addition to the existing strength of Canagute Police, we are also deploying one IRB platoon in Calangute.
HERALD: Don’t you think that police stations like Calangute should be given permanent sufficient strength if one looks at the influx of tourists?
CC: It is for the government to decide that. We need to beef up the force strength all over Goa and the government is working on it.
HERALD:There is no lady officer (PSI) at Calangute Police Station? Your take on that…
CC: It is not necessary that we need lady PSI only to register the cases. what we need to keep in mind is that there should be a lady police personnel irrespective of whatever rank she is. In Calangute, we have 13 lady police constables and two lady head constables.
HERALD:What are the challenges before the police when criminals keep changing their modus operandi every now and then?
CC: It is always a challenge for the police to nab every criminal or offence-doer more so with the upgradation in technology. We need to crack down on such team more and more and make detentions. We cannot put an end to such activities. It cannot happen. But we can go all out and conduct more and more raids and only by being more proactive we can reduce negligibly these activities.
