Panaji: Goa’s sun and sand with its pristine beaches has always lured visitors from near and far. But closer home, a chance encounter with a vendor on Calangute beach, who offered him drugs , made senior minister Francis D’Souza stop going to the beaches 15 years ago.“It was 15 years ago that I went to Calangute beach. The moment I stepped on the beach, a vendor approached and asked me: Kya mangta hain? Drugs chahiye kya? (What do you want? Do you need drugs?). Since then, I have stopped visiting the beaches,” D’Souza said.Calangute beach is just 13km from D’Souza’s residence in Mapusa.D’Souza, who is a five-term MLA and has been the deputy chief minister during the previous term, said the vendor was not a “native” as no local would have dared to approach an elected representative with an offer to sell drugs. “If it was a local vendor, he would have recognised me,” he said.D’Souza said the menace of migrant vendors on Goa’s beaches has had an adverse impact on tourist arrivals in the state. “It is not a good feeling when strangers come and touch you to buy their goods. Tourists, especially foreign visitors, don’t like such type of behavior,” he said, blaming the vendors for the decline in foreigners coming to the state and visiting the beaches of north Goa.He said the Calangute experience was bad enough to stop him from visiting any of the other beaches. “The situation there is no different from that of Calangute beach,” D’Souza said.He said those selling goods on the beaches are all migrants and the whole vendor problem could be resolved if it is dealt collectively. He also said the beaches were dirty and not well maintained.“I’m not talking about high-end infrastructure but basic facilities. They (the beaches) lack basic facilities such as wash rooms and drinking water. The foreign tourists are very particular about public utilities,” D’Souza said.He said some of the countries abroad not only keep the beaches clean but also sanitize them routinely. “I visited a beach in Portugal. It was unsoiled, besides chemical was sprinkled on the beach routinely to sanitize it in a bid to contain any kind of infection that may be left by any visitor,” D’Souza said.

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