Activist Judith Almeida cries foul
TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: The Goa State Pollution Control Board is mulling closure of Silvers Sands Resort at Colva after the New Year festivities.
While outgoing District Collector South N D Agrawal had declined to comply with the GSPCB directions on grounds that it may lead to law and order problem if the tourists occupying the rooms were forcibly evicted, Board Chairman Jose Manuel Noronha said the Board would move in the right directions after the New Year festivities.
It is learnt that stakeholders in the tourism industry are also believed to have impressed upon the Pollution Control Board not to insist on the hotel closure during the peak festive season on grounds that such an action would send wrong signals abroad.
Sources said it was the tourism stakeholders who argued that most of the guests occupying the rooms in the resort were charter tourists adding further that it was impossible to put in place alternate accommodation for these guests.
When contacted, Noronha, however, said that the Board will take its order to the logical conclusion after the New Year festivities.
“The Silver Sands Resort is operating illegally without the consent to operate. The Board has withdrawn the consent and the same has not been renewed. Hence, the Board would move in anytime after the New Year festivities to close down the hotel”, Noronha said, while saying that the hotel will remain closed till the unit complies with the guidelines.
Meanwhile, expressing her disgust at the attitude of the district administration, social activist Judith Almeida said that tourism will prosper and more tourists will return back to Goa only if they find the environment clean and green. “It is surprising that action has not been initiated against Silver Sands on the plea that it would affect tourists. But the same administration has been blind to the sufferings of local residents on account of the nuisance posed by the waste water discharged by the hotel”, Judith, who has been at the forefront opposing the pollution by the
resort, lamented.
