BJP has guts to bust drug trade: Goa Tourism Minister

Panaji, Sep 5 The drug trade was going on unchecked in the previous Congress-led regimes but it took a BJP-led government to show the guts to raid an illegal rave party in Goa and catch bigwigs, state Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar said on Saturday.

"Big fish involved in drug trade have been caught by this government. Drug business will be finished in Goa. This government had the guts to conduct such a big raid involving influential people. If the government was not keen, such business would have continued unabated," Ajgaonkar told reporters on Saturday referring to an illegal rave party busted in North Goa's Anjuna beach village.

A small-time Bollywood actor Kapil Jhaveri along with Shailesh Shetty, an aide of former Goa Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte, three foreigners and more than a dozen other revellers were arrested by the Crime Branch of the Goa Police, after its team busted the rave party in which drugs were being consumed.

Ajgaonkar said that the drug trade was not new to Goa and had flourished during the previous regimes led by the Congress party.

"In the previous Congress government regime, drugs used to be sold openly and there was internal fixing with drug dealers. This government is firm and all its MLAs support action against drug trade," Ajgaonkar told reporters.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has already warned of "zero tolerance" to drugs in the state. Goa, one of the leading beach and nightlife tourism destinations in the country, is also infamous as a destination for narco-tourism.

( With inputs from IANS )