Difficult for women to walk along Calangute-Candolim road at night, complains Mumbai-based actor

PANAJI: A Mumbai-based actor Rayya Labib has deplored the situation along the Calangute-Candolim road stretch at night, which is lined by drug peddlers, touts and pimps, not to forget CSWs and call girls.

On a recent visit to Calangute during the second weekend of December, Rayya Labib and her male companion alleged they were accosted every fifty meters by pimps, touts and drug peddlers who openly offered them the best (and cheapest) Malana Cream (charas or hash or hashish which comes from the Malana Valley in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh and supposed to be the best and pure), local ganja, cocaine, LSD or MD at the best rates.

“We were walking down the Calangute-Candolim road at night during a recent visit to Goa and every fifty meters or so were accosted by either a pimp trying to offer Bollywood actresses (call girls) or peddlers trying to sell cannabis, cocaine or MD. The situation was so pathetic. Since there was no tourist vehicle ready to go the distance at a reasonable charge – private tourist taxis quoted Rs 1500 to Rs 1800 for an approximately 3km distance, we decided to go by foot after dinner. It was so shocking. Calangute has become a touts and pimps paradise. We must have been approached by nearly 30 pimps and touts (selling sex, ladies dance bars and private massage) and another 10 drug peddlers on a 3 km stretch of the road,” Rayya told this journalist.

Calangute Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira had recently admitted to the local media in Goa that the situation has got worse with the peak tourist season at hand. The local MLA and the Sarpanch declared a war against touts and requested the Goa police to act against the criminal and illegal activity. Both the MLA and the Sarpanch have written letters to the Goa Police DGP against the harassment to tourists in the locality and on the beach.