Unless the government imposes heavy taxes on alcohol behaviors such as this will continue to rise. Moving the bars from the highways is not the way to curb alcohol consumption. Making alcohol expensive will be the deterrent.
High tension was reported at Arambol on Sunday evening after domestic tourists, allegedly under the influence of alcohol, clashed with locals.
Eyewitnesses said the incident took place at around 6.45pm, when eight to ten domestic tourists, supposedly from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, were traveling from Keri towards Arambol, in two four-wheelers. The group was alleged to have been behaving in an unruly manner and flinging beer bottles from their vehicles onto the road.
At the Arambol tinto junction, some motorcycle pilots told the tourists to behave properly and not to break the bottles on the road, but the tourists reacted to this advice in a violent fashion, as they got off their vehicles and began assaulting a motorcycle pilot. Some locals went to rescue the motorcycle pilot, but they were also brutally assaulted by the intoxicated tourists, who were armed with wooden sticks and metal rods, sources claimed.
Usually, the Arambol tinto junction is abuzz with locals, but a local cricket tournament had dragged the youth and elders away from the tinto. As the news spread, locals gathered at the site and got into an altercation with the drunk tourists, who began to flee, leaving their vehicles behind. The locals managed to catch hold of three tourists and thrashed them, while others, fearing for their life, jumped in the small culvert nearby. The agitated locals also damaged the vehicles belonging to the tourists.
Pernem police reached at the chaotic site only at 7.45pm and pacified the locals. Neither the locals, nor the tourists have filed a complaint with the police, until late Sunday evening.
