The tourist with two plastic garbage bins began to collect waste strewn in every direction at the main beach entrance and the nearby parking lot.
When asked what made her to take the initiative, the lady, who did not divulge her name, said: “All I need to see is this beautiful beach of Palolem is always kept beautiful.”
The pay parking lot managed by Canacona Municipal Council (CMC) also has garbage dumping bins and a toilet maintained by Sulabha Sucholaya, while temporary kiosks/food carts and lifeguard tower oversees the coastline.
“While CMC has a parking fee collector at the site, due to wayward garbage collections and no labourers, the entire parking lot and main beach entrance remains mostly dirty on any given day and time,” informed former CMC deputy chairperson Dayanand Pagui and added that season has begun a month ago, but no one seems to show any concern.
It is this very situation that forced a tourist on a visit to the beach to take up cleaning drive, and soon some boys noticing the tourist collecting garbage also joined her to clean the area.
Pagui, criticizing the waywardness of the civic body for failure even to keep the main beach entrance clean, said about five women especially engaged to keep the areas clean are nowhere to be seen.
When contacted, CMC Chairperson Simon Rebello, who is incidentally the ward councillor, said: “The tourism department looks after beach cleanliness and CMC engages workers to maintain the upper areas, especially areas visited by public. However, there is a serious delay in engaging the required labourers after they were given breaks during monsoon after some complaints were filed with the DMA against them.”
