Goa Police Cracking Down On Tourists Cooking On Roadsides

The Goa police have been ordered to crack down on tourists cooking in the open, following a directive from the tourism industry stakeholders chaired by chief minister Manohar Parrikar. This is based on the claim that it was unhygienic and resulted in garbage being strewn in public areas.

Tourism minister Manohar Ajgaonkar told IANS that at the meeting, which comprised representatives from state government agencies, as well as tourism and travel industry stakeholders, a decision was also taken to undertake a massive awareness drive to make tourists aware of the perils of swimming in the sea after sunset.

“Cooking in the open by groups of tourists is an eyesore. It creates disturbance and garbage which is left unattended. We have instructed police to crack down on groups of tourists who travel by buses and cooking gear and then cook in the open for their meals,” he said.

Tourists travelling on a tight budget often bring their cooking equipment and cook meals out in the open which doesn’t bring in any revenue to the state and results in excess garbage being created. “The sooner this is stopped the better. We have received a lot of complaints,” Ajgaonkar said.

We hope this results in a cleaner Goa, because, at the end of the day that’s all we really want!