TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Given that the tourism season is fast approaching and their problems have not been resolved by the authorities, the All Goa Private Property Shack and Hut Owners Association, supported by the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) will file a petition before National Green Tribunal (NGT) on its order on private shacks arguing that private shacks create local employment and boost tourism.
The intervention application will be filed before October 16, when the tribunal has scheduled further hearing on a petition challenging shacks on private properties.
In a recent directive, the NGT asked Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority to file an affidavit about its policy to grant licences for temporary shacks. The directive was taking cognizance of an Utorda local Aleixo Arnaldo Pereira’s petition which states that shacks cannot be permitted in no development zone, particularly where there are sand dunes. The Tourism Department has already said that its role is to only register the shacks.
“It is essential for tourism. We want to place before the NGT the benefits of shacks on private properties. It will generate jobs to local population,” Savio Messias, Vice President of TTAG told Herald after chairing a joint meeting of TTAG officials, hoteliers and private shack owners including association members, on Tuesday.
During, the hour-long meeting, the attendees unanimously resolved to support the State government fight this case in the green tribunal. The members also discussed the recommendation that government issue a notification to grant permission for erecting shacks on private property. “We are trying to help government overcome the problems… We are assisting the Association so that tourism in Goa is not affected,” Messias added.
Dharmesh Saglani, who heads the Private Shack Owners Association, said they will file the intervention application probably within the next two days. “It is the need of the hour. We are taking advice from our advocates and studying the petition copy. In the next one or two days, we will file the petition before NGT,” he told Herald.
In yet another decision, the TTAG will petition the Goa government to come out with a single window system for shacks on private property. “We will request government to come out with a long term policy for easy and convenient registration of shacks on private property. Let all agencies be it GCZMA, Tourism Department or any other agency, come under one roof,” the TTAG vice president said.
The Association has also called on private property shack owners to meet for further discussion at Church hall, Morjim at 3 pm, on Wednesday.
