My statement was not against any specific community: Babu

Seeking to lay to rest the controversy created by his statements on the Lamani community, the tourism minister Babu Azgaokar on Monday said that he never meant target the community as a whole but only meant that all illegal hawkers would be removed from the states beaches as this portrayed Goa in a bad light.

The statement that Lamamis should be thrown out of the state had created controversy and invoked an angry reaction from the Banjara community commonly known as Lamanis.

Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo, an MLA from the North Coastal belt had apologized earlier for the statement. 

 The tourism minister said that he was not averse  to music festivals coming to the state to attract foreign tourists.

But he said that he wanted to crack down on drugs as well keep the beaches clean for tourists.