This refers to the news Shacks v/s State by Guilherme Almeida in Herald dated January 24, 2015. I salute Herald and the writer for bringing the government’s misdeeds to the fore.
Sometime back, this newspaper had reported that there are about twenty-five percent government employees who are ineligible. I too had mentioned the same in one of the letter to the editor in this newspaper. It has now come to light that most of the twenty-five percent who are ineligible are in the Tourism Department.
The government is always working against the shacks. Every year, a delegation led by tourism minister goes on foreign visits to tap tourism markets. But, after the tourists begin coming, it is the personnel from the Tourism Department that begin the harassment.
The recent drop in tourists to the State should solely blamed on the tourism minister and the Tourism Department. The Majorda-Utorda incident is an eye-opener for government officials. The tourists who were having their lunch in the shack should have been allowed to finish their lunch instead of being driven out. The officials could have later taken action.
When shacks started their operations decades ago, there was no CRZ, no consent to operate and no green, black or yellow tribunals. With incidents like this, the government is all out to extract money from the shack owners. It seems the only idea of the government is to scare away the shack owners and then to allocate the shacks to non-Goans for a price.
During the Congress regime, no shack owners were asked to pay additional fees for beach sun beds. When BJP came to power, shack owners were allowed to place just 5 sun beds and when shack owners demanded more, they were asked to pay Rs 7,500 extra.
The Tourism Department should make a master plan as to how many tourists are expected in Goa every week and accordingly provide sun beds to each shack because once the foreigners come they prefer sun beds rather than sitting in closed areas.
Mining has stopped and so the government is feeling the pinch.
The actions of the police and the tourism officials are deplorable. The police cannot solve the spate of robberies and dacoities that are taking place in South Goa but swing into action and target the hapless shack owners.
Its high time the Tourism Department works to make holidays of tourists memorable.
