Even as Goa opened its doors to tourists last week, in an verbal directive issued on Wednesday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant ordered the police to crackdown on parties in the state, held both indoors as well as outdoors.
The directive comes on the heels of embarrassing moments faced by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, after ruling BJP MLA Glenn Ticlo was caught on video attending a party organised for his political workers at beach guest house in Calangute on Sunday.
"Parties will have to stop, whether it is at homes and outdoors. Police inspectors have been instructed," Sawant told media persons here.
On Monday, Sawant had ordered a probe into the party organised by Ticlo, in which nearly 20 party workers were seen in a leaked video — which went viral — without masks or maintaining social distancing in a confined space.
A probe has also been ordered into an outdoor music event organised on Sunday in the beach village of Morjim, in which more than 100 persons, most of them foreigners, were in attendance.
Sawant has also ordered a general crackdown on groups of people hanging out in public spaces, even as the state is battling to curb the increasing rate of infection spread in the state where the tally of active Covid-19 cases touched 759.
Interestingly, the crackdown comes at a time when the state government has opened the doors of the state to tourist activity. Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code continues to be imposed in Goa, even as Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has also urged denizens of the state to not visit homes of neighbours as well as friends in order to stem the rising rate of infection.
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