Team Herald
MARGAO: After several meetings with officials from the Tourism Department, the South Goa Water Sports Association finally got its NOCs to start operations for the upcoming tourist season.
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The Association members such as Pele Fernandes, Roy Barretto and several others were earlier running from pillar to post to get the NOCs from the department sorted.
It may be recalled that the Association members had also expressed their fears that the State government has plans to hand over the water sports business to corporates, thereby endangering their livelihoods, by bringing in a jetty policy under the guise of ‘ease of doing business’.
“There may also be clashes between the water sports businesses operated by traditional fishermen and the newcomers in the business, resulting in disturbance of public peace,” said Barretto.
The association had also joined other groups such as traditional fishermen associations in demanding that the Tourism Department withdraw its recent administrative order.
The organisations alleged that the order would allow the project proponents to bypass several rules mandating the protection of coasts and also affect Goa’s traditional fisheries and tourism businesses.
“The Goans and people residing in the coastal area will be displaced. The traditional fisherman and local communities should have the first right to the beach and the coastline,” Barretto added.
