PORVORIM: Emphasising on beach-cleaning and curbing illegal activities on the shores of Goa, Tourism Minister Manohar ‘Babu’ Azgaonkar has warned to arrest anyone caught consuming liquor on the beaches.
“Government is stressing on two important plans – beach cleaning and curbing illegality on the beaches. We have also stopped people drinking on the beaches. We will not mind jailing them if required,” he told the State Legislative Assembly during the Question Hour on Tuesday.
The minister said that police have already booked few cases in the recent past against those tourists drinking on the beaches. “We will amend the Tourism and Trade Act giving more powers. I have asked the tourist guards to be on vigil against the sale of drugs, and immediately contact the police for legal action against the accused persons. No one will be allowed to take law in their hand, even if it is a Goan,” he said in reply to a supplementary question by BJP MLA Glen Ticlo on the beach safety. Azgaonkar reiterated that in his first review meeting soon after taking over as tourism minister he had instructed the concerned authorities to clear the beaches of all sorts of menace.
Earlier during the discussion on the starred question about beach safety tabled by Aleixo Reginald Lourenco, the minster, who was later supported by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar refused to withdraw contract given to the Drishti Lifesaving Services to man the beaches.
“State government used to run the lifeguard services in the past but there were complaints in the House about inefficiency. Since the government could not run it satisfactorily, it was outsourced to the private firm. This does not mean that we have outsourced people for the job,” he said ruling out contentions from the opposition benches about why the tender was awarded to a non-Goan agency if the jobs are meant for Goans.
Azgaonkar too hailed the lifeguards’ agency for doing excellent job of saving the lives on the beaches. “So many lives have been saved by the lifeguards. In the last five years, 3,033 lives were saved by 677 lifeguards of whom 83 per cent were Goans We need to save lives of people so that the tourism grows,” he told the House.
The opposition legislators, including Jennifer Monserrate and Lourenco demanded that since there are majority Goans working as a lifeguard, the services should be given to any state-level company. This also led to a verbal duel between the tourism minister and Lourenco.
“You think we will not taken Goans,” he shot back asking the Curtorim legislator to hunt for a capable agency. “Why don’t you search for a capable lifeguards agency, which is equipped in all terms and inform the government? If Goans are available to take over this contract then they can come ahead. Let them participate in the tendering process to win the contract,” he said in a rather angry tone.
The government was also virtually cornered by BJP legislators Nilesh Cabral and Glen Ticlo who insisted that beach safety did not cover only lifeguards. Ticlo even pointed at an instance wherein a boy was attacked by two dogs during the time when no safety personnel were on the beach. The minister replied that tourist guards, and a team of police are deployed on the beaches to carry out other safety-related tasks.
The government instituted a lifeguarding and water safety services in the state for the safety of public since 2008. As per the written reply, the present contract is awarded to M/s Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd initially for a period of five years and the contract period commenced with effect from August 1, 2014 which will be in force until June 2019. Under this contract, 43 beaches across the State and 2 inland water bodies namely Dudhsagar Waterfall and Mayem Lake are patrolled by professionally-trained lifeguards. More so, fully-equipped lifeguard towers and stations have been erected on beaches to discharge duty smoothly.
