Also accuse government of corruption in tendering process
TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Goa tourism ministry’s decision to use heavy equipment to mechanically clean some of the most frequented beaches in the State has come in for opposition from civil society group who suspects corruption into the decision.
Human Rights Defenders (HRD) objecting to mechanize beach cleaning of coastal belts of-Calangute-Candolim-Sequrim-Baga (North) and Colva-Betalbatim-Sernabatim-Benaulim (South) stated that using machines to clean beaches would be environmentally disastrous to minor forms of life that crawl in the sand.
HRD has expressed unhappiness as Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar had initially announced to launch the mechanized beach cleaning on trial basis at the beach belt of Colva and Calangute, while the tender document speaks about eight beaches.
“There is a corruption in the entire tendering process. Tourism Minister and Tourism Director are involved in the corruption,” HRD convenor Advino Fernandes alleged during a media briefing on Monday.
HRD claims mechanical cleaners will be useless in the monsoon season due to disappearance of huge chunks of beach areas due to building of nullahs.
In a petition to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, HRD has demanded that in the larger interest of the environmental protection and the human rights of the fisher-folk community, government should continue with the manual cleaning of the beaches along the entire coastline, as is being done presently rather than going in for mechanized in few places.
“The use of machinery on beaches will lead to mortality of marine life, besides causing damage to the beaches due to movement of sediments and according to the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), the continuous ruffling and screening of sand by mechanical cleaners will increase the beach erosion level and the entire bio-organism and rich flora and fauna will be wiped out,” petition reads.
HRD has also raised question-mark over government decision to award tender to a Mumbai based firm Ram Engineering, which according to them are inexperienced in beach cleaning.
“The firm is basically involved in housekeeping works and maintains of theaters, malls, business houses, etc by working in closed AC doors and is not having any beach cleaning experience of disposing tar-balls or huge animal carcasses,” Fernandes said in the petition.
He said that as against the present trend where the beach cleaning contract is signed for one year, Government has decided to sign tender with the firm for a period of five years, further extendable for another five years.
In a petition to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, HRD has demanded that in the larger interest of the environmental protection and the human rights of the fisher-folk community, government should continue with the manual cleaning of the beaches along the entire coastline, as is being done presently rather than going in for mechanized cleaing at few places
