Postpone Goa Assembly Polls to March-end, don’t upset tourist season, demands Lokhancho Ekvott

PANAJI: The Lokhancho Ekvott – a social forum in Goa, has demanded that the Goa State Assembly elections should not be held in February next year and must be postponed to March-end or April 2022.

The reasoning of the Lokhancho Ekvott is simple – the charter tourist season in Goa this year will begin only in the first week of December. The first charter flights to Goa are expected only between 15th November and 25th November and will pick up only by mid-December. Most charter flight tourists stay for 25 days to 45 days, with some of them staying for 60 to 70 days. If the elections are going to be held in February next year, the Code of Conduct would come into force from the first week of January, heavily impacting the restaurant and hotel business in Goa. Once the Code of Conduct comes into force, several curbs and restrictions come into being – alcohol cannot be sold in shops and restaurants cannot serve alcohol after 11pm on all days. Further clubs, pubs and other entertainment zones have to shut down by 11.30 pm or before midnight. Police patrolling is greatly increased during Code of Conduct and checks, nakabandis etc., can make life very miserable for the foreigners. Many corrupt cops take advantage of the situation and unnecessarily harass tourists during this period, a Lokhancho Ekvott spokesperson said.

Foreign Charter tourists who land in Goa during the Christmas season, will be literally bottled up at home from January onward, as the Code of Conduct will come into force between 4th and 7th January, restricting their movement and freedom to party.

“This will greatly impact the tourism industry in Goa which is hoping for a decent season this year for its survival. We must get at least three clear months of business, to cover our capital expenditure, rents, royalties, deposits and licensing fees which we have to pay. If the Code of Conduct comes into force from January our business is once again doomed as January is one of the peak months of the tourism sector in Goa,” said Antonio De Costa, who runs a travel agency and a hotel in Calangute.

Tourism operators have suffered two years of slack or no business in Goa. This year we are not expecting to make profits, but only want to consolidate the losses of last year and pay off our loans and EMIs. If we are not able to even to do this, several operators in Goa will go completely bankrupt, De Costa explains.

It’s not just the big hospitality and travel operators, the tourism business percolates to the lower level of taxi operators, motorcycle pilots, salons, taverns and food carts, which dot the coastal areas during the tourism months.

The Lokhancho Ekvott will write to the Election Commission of India to consider deferring the polls by 45 days, to March-end, to enable Goans to earn their bread and butter during the peak months of the tourist season in the coastal state.