TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS) on Tuesday submitted a memorandum to government urging it to roll back the fees on beach beds, due to the slack tourist season.
“We have requested (government) to roll back the fees since the tourist season is bad this year and because of this, we will not be able to recover the cost of shacks itself,” SOWS President Cruz Cardozo told Herald.
The memorandum was submitted to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and Tourism Director Ameya Abhyankar even as the association members could not meet them in person. Since the last two seasons, the Tourism department has been charging Rs 10,000 for 20 beds in each shack. The temporary shack owners now claim that they cannot afford the payments, owing to decline in the number of tourists arriving in Goa this year.
Cardozo said they will seek an appointment with the chief minister to seek solutions to their problems.
