Goa Congress to chalk out action plan for 'drug-free' state

The Congress in Goa has constituted a five-member team to come up with an action plan for making the state 'drug-free', state unit president Luizinho Faleiro said on Wednesday.

Faleiro said that drug peddling had entered the interiors of Goa from the coastal belt, which was popular with tourists and notorious for drug abuse, adding that the opposition party would even reach out to the ruling BJP to check the menace.

"We have formed a five-member team to chalk out an action plan for our campaign to make Goa drug-free. Drugs are no longer confined to the coast, but their use has spread to the hinterland too. It has to be curbed," Faleiro said while addressing a press conference at the state Congress headquarters.

"We want the anti-drug movement to be apolitical and cutting across party lines. We have no problem in approaching the ruling party to join the movement," Faleiro said.

The Congress Working Committee member said that in some beaches, including the popular Arambol beach in north Goa, 50 km from Panaji, drugs were sold openly by foreign nationals.

"They openly ask people if they want drugs. This is scaring the locals. Without coming together, this menace cannot be weeded out," Faleiro said.

He however dodged questions about senior Congressman and former home minister Ravi Naik, who along with his son, has been accused in a legislative committee report of shielding the drug mafia during Congress rule from 2007-2012.

"I do not want to make it personal. Let us forget the past," Faleiro said.