CALANGUTE: With some beach shack owners in the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt receiving the consent to operate letter from the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) in the last few days, there was confusion over the sealing of shacks by the Deputy Collector, which had started on Monday, following a High Court order.
On Tuesday, the Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS) General Secretary John Lobo said, “Because of a communication gap, some shack owners, who received the consent to operate a short while after their shacks had already been sealed, will have to wait a few days to reopen their shacks.”
“The officials from the Deputy Collector’s office had come to seal my shack in Baga, claiming that there was no GSPCB consent to operate, but they went away after I showed them the letter,” he said.
More than 50 per cent of the beach shacks in Calangute-Candolim have been sealed in the last few days following the recent High Court order.
“All the shack owners who did not have the consent to operate have applied to the GSPCB. A large number of others, even hotels, who did not have the consent to operate, have also applied after the High Court order, so a large number of applications have piled up with the GSPCB and it will take some time for them to clear them,” Lobo said.
“After receiving the GSPCB consent to operate, the shack owners will have to approach the Magistrate to unseal the shack,” he said.
“Some received the letter on Monday, some received on Tuesday, but their shacks have been sealed and they will have to follow the procedure to unseal them,” Lobo added.
Manuel Cardozo, president of the Traditional Shacks Owners Association, whose shack at Umtawaddo, Calangute, has been sealed, said he is yet to get the GSPCB letter, adding that there are no clear answers given to them by officials of the GSPCB.
