CALANGUTE: With the authorities having to file a compliance report to the High Court of Bombay at Goa about the beach shacks operating without obtaining consent to operate from the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), the Deputy Collector, Bardez, on Monday started the process to shut down around 160 beach shacks in the Calangute and Candolim beach stretch.
Last week, the government officials had shut doors of the kitchen rooms, which are the only enclosed area in the shack, while the furniture was stacked in and around the shacks, with most shacks being ‘open-air' structures,
“This process will take a few days because the officials have to walk to the shacks on the beach. Whichever shacks have not applied to the GSPCB for consent to operate will have to do so and once they get the consent to operate, they will be allowed to reopen their shacks. The High Court order is very clear,” said Shack Owners Welfare Society general secretary John Lobo.
The North Goa Collector has formed as many as eight teams to execute closure order of as many as 161 shacks as per the directions of the High Court even as many operators have now applied to the GSPCB for valid consent to operate e as required under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution Act, 1981.