Goa has prepared new fines for tourists: “For irresponsible drinking”

Startled by the influx of visitors from Russia, the state of Goa has issued a new batch of restrictions on tourists, some of which sound almost anecdotal – for example, a fine for “irresponsible drinking.” However, the violation of prohibitions that sound like a joke is punishable by no small penalties.

What we still can’t do in Goa, and to whom and why it got into the head to ban this very thing, we found out from the Goans themselves.

The most costly violation of the new Goan regime today – “cooking food in the open air”, is punishable by a fine of up to 50 thousand rupees (more than 40 thousand rubles). More exotic crimes – waving a selfie stick in a crowded place, launching drones, taking pictures with natives – do not have a clear fee and are paid “according to circumstances.” apparently, by agreement with the law enforcement agencies that detained the criminal. I collect the most mysterious prohibitions (they were quoted by the Goan press) and ask the locals if it is forbidden for them too – or is it specifically to pacify the guests of the state of Goa?

– The ban on cooking on the street definitely applies to the locals, – the owner of the guesthouse in North Goa answers. “We are not at all happy about this ban. This means that all sheks (beach cafes – ed.) do not have the right to cook, since their kitchens are located right on the beach during temporary housing. Also, tourists living in hotels or renting a room without a kitchen do not have the right, for example, to fry their meat on an open-air grill.

– And what’s the point in that?

– Simple. Go to an expensive licensed restaurant. Or just paying someone who needs it. But don’t worry, sheki won’t go anywhere from the beach. They will pay and everything will be as before. No one wants to close during the high season.

At the same time, the secret of the wording of “irresponsible drinking” is revealed: responsibly – this is in licensed restaurants, where alcohol is many times more expensive than in supermarkets. And then tourists will buy a bottle and take it to the beach, and reputable establishments are empty. As for the whole block of “photo warnings” (a ban on various types of photos), as it turns out, it was conceived for the safety of the tourists themselves, as they explain to me in the local neighborhood.

“It happens that Indian tourists, for example, from Mumbai, themselves ask tourists to take pictures with them,” a policeman from the village of Morjim, considered “Russian,” shares privately. – More often they are men, less often families, and white women and children are asked to act together. And then they complain to us that their photo appeared in social networks with an inappropriate signature. Or even not on social media. It is long and useless to explain why it is impossible, it is easier to ban it altogether. You can not take pictures with the locals and that’s it.

The policeman alludes to a recent case when a Russian woman who voluntarily took a picture on the beach with an Indian tourist accidentally found herself the “face” of an indecent portal in the Indian segment of the Web. Less large-scale, but no less unpleasant metamorphoses happened with tourist photos: a young Indian put one Russian woman on his page as his “Russian mistress”, another photo of her children got into Indian social networks, with the help of which someone collected some money, or signatures (written in Hindi). The children of the Russian woman were photographed on the beach voluntarily, responding to the request of a nice Indian family, and for everything else their permission was not asked.

“We understand that many guests do not refuse to share a photo with the locals for fear of offending them with a refusal,” they say in the Goan police. – And when there is a ban on paper, then there are no offenses. The guest would be happy, but prohibited.

According to local law enforcement, all the other weird new “nos” like drone photography, reef selfies, selfie sticks in crowds, and satellite phones are purely to protect state visitors from both locals and themselves. After all, private property is being removed from drones, where our compatriots who do not want to be recognized can be. And in general, this is an invasion of privacy and private territory, prohibited by Indian law. The Goan reefs, while undeniably the most beautiful backdrop for a photo, are so slippery that the state’s hospitals receive guests who have fallen off them daily. A selfie stick in the most populous country in the world can easily turn into a crippling weapon, especially if you get into the crowd near some local shrine with it. As for the ban on satellite phones, it turns out that this is a matter of state security.

– In our country, satellite communications (it differs from cellular communications in the way of communication – via satellite, and not through cells of a mobile operator – author) has been banned since 2008, since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, – Goan law enforcement officers say. – The terrorists’ conversations through a cellular operator would be intercepted, but it is difficult through a satellite. We can’t control every owner of a satellite phone, so it’s easier to ban it altogether.

By the way, violators with satellite communications have already come across twice – on New Year’s Eve and on the last day of January, both times Russians. The first citizen of the Russian Federation, who arrived in Goa with his wife and two children on December 28, said he knew nothing about the ban. A second Russian tourist, detained on January 31 in South Goa, has been charged with possession and use of a satellite phone, a criminal offense under India’s wireless telegraphy law. The Russian was taken into custody, the phone was confiscated.

– The first Russian got off with a fine, because as of December 30, he really could not have known about the law prohibiting satellite communications in India, – a judge from Delhi assesses the prospects of the detainee. – But since January 1, the state of Goa has repeatedly brought to the attention of its guests a list of actions prohibited on their territory. So ignorance of the law will not become a mitigating circumstance for the second violator. But, I hope, the case will also end with a fine, and not with bars. Only the penalty, of course, will already be greater.

Goan cops remind that satellite phone signals are monitored on an ongoing basis, and tourists are most often caught when they call home via satellite, trying to save on the services of Indian cellular operators.