Vehicles lined up outside the hall opposite the Morjim Church. There were BMWs and other posh cars. But majority were tourist taxis – albeit top end ones. The hall was quite spacious, but not very well maintained and chairs were kept till around the halfway mark. There were already around 200 people listening half curiously to a person talking about the problems faced by private shack owners. All of these were also private shack owners or operators and all had been called for a meeting to find a way to try and build a consensus and sort out the issues faced by these private shack owners.
The tourism season has already begun for all practical purposes. The local inflow never really stopped and the first charter had just touched down. But these private shack owners were still trying to sort out their problems. They had not been given licences and many complain that their deposits of last year have not been returned to them.
The speaker stressed on keeping unity among themselves and said that in case a lawyer had to be hired to fight their legal battles in order to start their shack business, it may cost upto a lakh of rupees.
The meeting was called by the president of the Private Shack and Hut Owners Association Dharmesh Saglani. “We want a permanent solution from the government. Not an ad hoc one that sorts out issues on a year-to-year basis. And we also want a shack policy that is meant of us.” These were the sentiments and decisions that were expressed and taken at a meeting of private shack operators at Morjim.
The private shack operators expressed their angst at perceived government lethargy on taking up issues of private shack operators.
The meeting called for unity among the shack operators as well as calls for contribution to fight the NGT case. This year, the tourism department, under directions of the National Green Tribunal has asked private shack operators to obtain a NOC from the GCZMA and said it will not release previous year’s security deposits (2013-14) until the NOC is submitted.
The TTAG had written to Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) saying that private beach shacks and huts being located in private properties, and at a distance from the beach, and do not pose any environmental hazard be allowed. It had also appealed to the Union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) to allow shacks to operate throughout the year.
The private shack operators have been demanding also an amendment in CRZ rules so that they are permitted to function without any hindrance. One important demand was that beach shacks should not be permitted to be erected in front of private properties.
But, today at the start of the tourist season, there is uncertainty as to whether private beach shack operators would be allowed to erect shacks in their private properties even for a normal period of six months.
