TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
CANACONA: The Canacona Municipal Council (CMC) will face a challenging task to remove several temporary beach structures all over the coastline in the municipality, with seasonal permit holders allowed to operate till May 31.
According to CMC sources, even though May 31 is the last day for seasonal permit holders to operate, these permit holders have up to June 15 and a further grace period of three days to dismantle their structures and restore the land to its original shape.
For the tourism season 2012-13, the CMC has issued seasonal permits for shacks (61), stall (63) and huts (1134) along its coastline at Palolem beach, Colomb, Patnem and Rajbag-Tarir.
Later at the fag-end of the tourism season, the CMC identified 314 illegal structures, including 10 private shacks, 75 huts, 134 tents, 93 stalls, one shop and a yoga centre, including a beauty parlour.
Besides, the CMC in a half-hearted manner also served 70 notices to these illegal structures, calling for payment of the seasonal permit fees or face action including demolitions.
Alleging that the CMC appeared to safeguard several of these illegal structures and did not act till date, sources claimed that only a few owners responded to the CMC notices by paying the requisite fees to regularise their structures. Most owners of the illegal structures did not pay any heed to CMC notices and continued to do business till the very last day (May 31) authorised for the permit holders.
Responding to the allegations, CMC Chairperson Ajay Bhagat said: “Since the time did not permit strict action on those defying the CMC notices to the illegal structures, it is now left for authorities to ensure that those who have not responded to the CMC notices to be blacklisted for the next tourist season and should not be granted seasonal permits or allowed to erect temporary structures.”
