It is official now, drinking and cooking at public places in Goa will carry a heavy fine and punishment which may include the jail term. This law is applicable for everyone and not just the tourists coming in Goa. Moreover, domestic tourists get involved in drinking and cooking activities in public places.
The recent development came into the force following the Goa Tourist Places (Protection and Maintenance) (Amendment) Act, 2019 was notified by the government by taking approval from governor Mridula Sinha.
The act says that drinking and cooking in public places will attract the fine ranging from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 10000 and the same will also be punishable.
According to the report published by Times of India The Act will prohibit consumption of liquor in open, cooking food in open, littering waste including used material, empty bottles etc; breaking glass bottles and other such activity as may be specified by the government by notification in the official gazette.
The objective of the legislation is to protect and preserve the tourism potential of tourist places in Goa and keep such places clean and free from nuisance.
The locals are upset about the way domestic tourist behave when they come to Goa, it appears that they let loose themselves when Goa thinking that anything is possible here and everything will get tolerated, but that is true.
Goans do not like the irrational behavior of domestic tourists especially the cooking in public which creates a nuisance for others and it is the dangerous act.
Now that the amendment is made it will all depend on the authorities to implement the same seriously as there were cases in the past when despite drinking in public is a punishable offense the authorities failed to clamp down on it.
The government had recently passed a bill at the ongoing assembly session to ban drinking, littering and breaking of glass bottles at tourist spots in the state.
“Goa Tourist Places (Protection and Maintenance) (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Goa Act 6 of 2019), which has been passed by the legislative assembly of Goa on January 31, 2019, and assented to by the governor of Goa is hereby published for the general information of the public,” Dnyaneshwar Raut Dessai, joint secretary (law), said.
The bill states following, Any person found violating shall be liable to pay a fine of Rs 2,000 to the competent authority or any other officers authorized by it in this behalf. Where such violation is committed by more than one person in a group, such group shall be liable to pay a fine of Rs 10,000. In case such person refuses to pay such amount, he shall be liable to punishment,” the bill had stated.
“No person engaged in the business of sale of liquor shall allow its customer to carry bottles/cans containing liquor in a tourist place,” the bill had further mentioned.
Tourists drinking on beaches and making a nuisance of themselves has become a major problem in the state. Recently, deputy speaker and Calangute MLA Michael Lobo had even blamed chief minister Manohar Parrikar for letting the problem grow to such massive proportions.
