Team Herald

PANJIM: Shack owners have requested the State government to speedily give compensation to shack operators affected by Cyclone Ockhi.  

“We pay over Rs 2.5 crore in fees annually to the government, so we urge this time to compensate us and have a sympathetic view on shack owners’ issue,” shack owners said.  

Speaking to the media in Panjim, beach shack owners blamed the government machinery for not issuing a proper warning of the cyclonic danger. “If we had to receive information on time, then, the losses would have reduced. It is a complete failure of the State government to pass the information on time,” John Lobo, a shack owner, said.

Shack owners also blamed the CRZ authorities for allotting the shack areas closer to the shore. Shack Owners Association President Cruz Cardozo said, “We had objected initially at the time of demarcation of the shacks but the CRZ authorities said that the shack should be 20 meters away from the vegetation.”

Almost 50 percent of the shacks would have been saved during the disaster if the shacks were not demarcated close to the shore.

“We want a proper shack policy that takes care of each and every aspect and issues faced by the traditional shack owners. We were erecting shacks prior to 1991,” Cardozo said. He said that Tourism department has not issued any licence to the shacks and they were operational based on provisional licenses.

He said that none of the government agencies had come on beach to assess losses. It is only after the shack owners raised their voices that government authorities came two days later.

Another shack owner Seby D’Souza said that the government was not prepared to tackle any major disaster. He also opined out that if shacks are erected away from the shore, losses due to any calamity will reduce and this will also give people access and plenty of space on beach.