Outlines police upgrades to tackle cases
Panaji: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday told the state legislative assembly that more than 90% of crimes in Goa, including rapes and robbery, are due to migrants.
He also said that altogether 1,27,222 tenant verifications were carried out in 2025.
Revolutionary Goans Party MLA Viresh Borkar earlier alleged that the crime detection rate in Goa is 98.9%, while the crime conviction rate is only 5.85%. He also pointed at the shortage of police personnel and the growing pendency of criminal cases.
The Chief Minister informed the House that the Cyber Yoddha programme has been introduced by the police to counter the increasing cases of cyber crime in Goa. He also said that the cyber crime cases had one of the steepest increases, rising 272% from 32 cases to 119 over five years, while out of 140 cases of cyber crime detected, only two having resulted in conviction.
Speaking about the crime prevention plan, Sawant, who holds the Home portfolio, said that the government was taking several measures to strengthen policing, including filling all vacancies, continuous in-service training, deployment of 46 highway patrol vans and 15 PCR vans, and greater use of smart CCTV surveillance. “Around 700 additional CCTV cameras are under consideration for the police department,” he said.
Furthermore, the Opposition parties also highlighted a 43% rise in rape cases in Goa over the last five years, with cases increasing from 72 in 2021 to 103 in 2025.
Responding to these figures, the Chief Minister attributed the increase to the circumstances under which several cases come to be registered as rape. He cited live-in relationships subsequently resulting in rape complaints, love affairs where marriage was later refused, and elopement involving minors where the consent of a minor has no legal validity, as some of these circumstances.
Sawant also included among the reasons, those cases involving migrant workers found during pregnancy-related treatment to have married before turning 18, besides cases involving neighbours and extra-marital relationships. He said that such cases being registered under rape provisions had contributed to the higher numbers.
During debate on the state’s law and order situation, in the Question Hour, the Chief Minister said that around 9,000 of the 12,795 cases were pending.
The Opposition highlighted that crimes against women rose by 58%, crimes against children by 51%, kidnapping by 50% and narcotics cases by 34%.
“Organised crime cases, which stood at zero in 2021, had increased to 37,” the House was told by the Opposition, who also raised the issue of drugs finding their way into Colvale jail and the recent shootout at Porvorim.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister said that altogether 250 Police Sub Inspectors, who have been recently recruited, are currently undergoing training and would return from training after eight months to join service. He also said that promotions of police officers have also been carried out to strengthen the police force.
The Opposition pointed out that against the sanctioned police strength of 5,034 personnel in Goa, the actual strength stands at 4,459, leaving a shortage of 575 personnel.
