TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: The Tourism Ministry has issued a new set of guidelines for water sports operators which includes compulsory maintenance of queue system, issue of tickets and operations within designated areas, to ensure that they fall in line or face action for violations if reported to the concerned departments.
The guidelines prescribe action by the Tourism Department, Captain of Ports and National Institute of Water Sports so as to ensure that water sports operators conduct activities in a safe and transparent manner.
In addition, water sports operators will have to form associations for the stretches they operate on and they will be held responsible for the conduct of water sports activities.
Sources in the Tourism Ministry disclosed that the guidelines include maintenance of daily sale of tickets, display of fees as notified by the Department of Tourism to curb touting and irregularities and installation of basic facilities such as changing rooms and toilets.
The water sports operators will also be required to strictly adhere to instructions from lifeguards on the beach and ensure that they have on board life saving equipment.
In case of repeated violations the Tourism Ministry has prescribed that action be taken against water sports operators under the Tourist Trade Act.
With the tourism season picking up, water sports operators are alleged to be lax on various counts and complaints against them are being reported to local authorities.
Responding to news of guidelines, Paul Silveira president of the Water Sports Association said, “It appears that this is an exercise to hand over the entire monitoring of the operation to the GTDC”, Silveira said adding further that they are waiting to see what the new guidelines have in store for them.
Morjim shack operators warned: The Tourism Department on Tuesday issued stern warnings to Morjim beach shack operators not to disturb turtle nesting sites, based on reports from its flying squads that certain activities are likely to disturb turtle nesting.
These operators from Morjim were Tuesday summoned to the department.
“We have asked the shack operators to conduct their business without disturbing the nestings,” said a senior official in the Tourism Department adding further that action would be taken if they failed to adhere to the directives.
