New People Government Participation (PGP) model of handling local issues established
Committee to be registered by Tourism Department will send regular reports to Deputy Director Tourism
Welcome to a whole new project model of participative governance, PGP or People Government Participation, not quite inspired by the PPP (Public Private Participation) but with a hope of better people oriented results- garbage free beaches for instance
Based on announcement made at Calangute MLA Michael’s Lobo birthday party on June 18, a 40-member Calangute-Candolim-Baga Beach Management Committee will be formed on Monday chaired by Shawn Martins and overseen by Lobo. More members to join in due course.
• This beach vigilante squad on the Sinquerim-Candolim-Calangute-Baga belt will handle entire beach management right from ensuring cleanliness such as clearing the bins thrice a day to getting rid of hawkers, touts, beggars and cattle.
• The team will also ensure that no person carries glass bottles or liquor bottles on the beach. If found, IRB personnel will be informed.
• The committee will ensure its registration with the tourism department and submit weekly report to deputy director.
• Lobo assured the committee will buy two trucks and employ additional labourers, if government fails to do so for cleaning garbage.
• Lobo requests that government issue an Act wherein IRB personnel should be empowered to penalize the violators with minimum Rs 500 per person.
• The team wants that contact numbers of concerned police sub inspectors on duty be made public for information.
• It requests other coastal MLAs to take up the same initiative.
Mechanized beach cleaning experiment to start soon
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Goa government has finalized the integrated scientific beach cleaning tender in favour of Mumbai-based Ram Engineering for Rs 1.25 crore per month. However, Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said they are yet to finalize the company that would supply eco-friendly equipment for mechanized cleaning.
“The beach cleaning tender has been finalized except that the company that will supply machinery, for which we have already received two to three bids so far,” he told Herald after the meeting that was chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar at Secretariat on Saturday.
Ram Engineering had quoted Rs 13 crore per year and was the lowest bidder as against Eco Clean and BVG.
They will be responsible for cleaning oil deposits from the beaches as well.
Parulekar informed that before finalizing the agency for mechanical cleaning, all the bidders will be asked to carry out mechanized cleaning demonstration in the presence of green NGOs to allay their apprehensions that it will be kill crabs and other beach organisms.
The demonstration will be carried out at Baga, Calangute, Colva and Miramar beaches from this week. Sources said that tourism department had moved this proposal to the government in February 2014 but the process expedited after Herald’s sustained campaign on beach cleaning.
Parulekar said that payment to Ram Engineering may be reduced if the entire beach cleaning process is done manually. The machinery will be accepted provided it is ‘environmentally safe and friendly.’
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This is what we are fighting against
The running mess in Candolim and Coco
Huge quantities of plastic waste, empty beverage containers of all types, and other bio as well as non bio degradable wastes welcome guests to these once beautiful and clean beaches. Candolim has been hosting electronic-dance-and-music festivals, for which several lakh partygoers come for annually. According to locals so as to ensure garbage is not an eye-sore during shows, contractors burn the waste right on the beach itself even though it is an offence as well as an environmental hazard.
“The situation is terrible during the tourist season. People litter on the beaches but we can’t blame them also because there are no dustbins to dump the waste,” Candolim resident Sonia Kunkolienkar said.
Similarly, heaps of garbage at Coco beach are also visible exposing the government’s lethargy on maintaining cleanliness. The river stretch facing Reis Magos Fort in Verem faces the same fate.
“The problem is never ending. We complain every year and get empty promises. Subsequent governments have only been making assurances. There is no concrete result,” Dilip Samant, another resident and former government employee, complains.
The local panchayats have washed their hands off saying it the duty of tourism department for beach cleaning. “We have no authority over beach cleaning but we ensure the other parts of our village is clean. We collect door to door garbage,” Nerul Village Panchayat Sarpanch Piedade Almeida said.
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Look what the rains brought in
Tons of garbage in the sea has got washed up on the shores of Calangute, Anjuna, Baga
Marine life was been injecting these toxins l Plastic garbage in sand pits a huge problem
Vibha Verma
vibha@herald-goa.com
CALANGUTE: Adding to the never ending garbage along the state beaches, now a lot of waste has been washed ashore due to the rains of the last few days. The dead wood, debris and plastic waste are lying in unsightly lines all along the shores.
“Our beaches are already covered with garbage, and the monsoon has drastically changed beaches. Huge waves have washed in tons of rubbish,” Candolim businessman Sachin Kandolkar said.
This, he says is scary considering that floating junk will have massive impact on the sea life. “Marine animals ingesting toxins as a result of debris in the water will die. More so, the rains bringing out garbage on the shore will affect human lives,’ he argued.
Calangute, Candolim, Baga, Vagator, Anjuna and Colva beaches are just a few on the list.
“The entire beach belt is being contaminated,” another local from Anjuna Ayush Nagvekar said.
Plastic garbage stuck in sand pits is also another major problem especially as it is an invitation to dogs and other cattle to dig it up while searching for food. Locals allege that this has resulted in a few deaths of animals as well as birds on the beach.
The Tourism Department says that this is a cyclical problem. According to Deputy Director Pamela Mascarenhas the first rains flush out garbage from the sea along the shorelines.
But she has assured that the fresh beach cleaning project will clear not only garbage but also oil spills from the beaches.
