Team Herald
PANJIM: Expressing concerns about the negative impacts of uninterrupted unregulated tourism activities in their areas, the residents of Sao Tome and Fontainhas on Monday wrote to Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) Mayor Rohit Monserrate seeking his intervention on the issue.
In the letter, 80 members of Community Association of Residents and Establishments (CARE), Sao Tome -Fontainhas, stated: “The unstructured and unregulated tourism activity being unleashed in the area is greatly affecting the lives of the residents in the Latin Quarters, Sao Tome and Fontainhas wards of Panjim.”
The CARE members said, “The growing influx of tourists in the locality has transferred our charming and peaceful neighbourhood into a noisy and intrusive experience for the residents, destroying the local ethos and our cultural heritage, more importantly depriving us of the right to quality life that we deserve.”
The residents further said that parking of tourist or casino vehicles creates a major bottleneck on the narrow streets, causing obstruction to free movement of traffic, affecting emergency services.
“Growing presence of touts and anti-social elements, hawkers and roving carts is a menace and makes the life of residents unsafe. It also disrupts the demographic profile of the neighbourhood. Noisy scenes by rowdy tourists and group photography have become natural fallout of mass tourism circuses posing privacy issues and disturbing the peace and quiet in the area which predominantly houses elders,” they said.
They claimed that some stand-alone bars or eateries are found encroaching on public spaces and adding to existing traffic issues and impending easy pedestrian flow.
“The lack of sanitation facilities for tourists gives rise to open urination in the lanes of the wards which is both unhygienic and deplorable. The existing signages or display boards contain misleading information which creates greater confusion than solutions," they said.
They demanded that the entry and parking of tourist vehicles in the area be banned and the same be diverted to the pay parking zone at Patto Plaza.
They suggested that road barriers be introduced at one-way entry points into the residential road and outer ring road and internal roads be reserved for the residents and establishments.
The locals demanded that services of tourist police force or police robins be availed to monitor behavioural issues and keep anti-social activities in check.
They demanded installation of cameras at strategic locations for efficient monitoring of the area.