The deputy leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former Goa law minister Francis D’Souza has criticised the present government for spending over three times more on an advertising campaign than on developing tourism infrastructure. Commenting in the state assembly, D’Souza said more should be done to encourage Indian visitors to Goa and promote the area as a family destination, as foreign charter tourists spent less.

In 2008 over 94,000 tourists arrived from Britain and more than 44,500 from Russia. Goa has recently expanded its casino operations and has acquired a reputation for drug use amongst the population and tourists in the area. Today the Congress in Goa condemned the state government's policy to encourage off-shore casinos at the cost of the local population, some of whom gamble and lose more money than they can afford. Casino gambling was said to be ‘polluting’ the youth of Goa.

Earlier this month activists in the area urged the state government to ban both on-shore and off-shore casinos, in a crackdown similar to that enacted in Russia. An antigambling group is in the process of compiling data on local families and individuals who have been bankrupted by gambling, and says it will demand compensation for them from the government. (E-07.20.09)

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