CALANGUTE: The Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS) on Friday held an extraordinary urgent meeting at Calangute with a large number of shack owners from across the State voicing their grievances against the functioning of Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte and the Tourism Department.
They said there has been constant harassment by the Tourism Department since the beginning of this season with raids being conducted on some pretext or other everyday in the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt.
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“Since the start of the season, the Tourism Department has badly harassed shacks, even driving away customers sitting and eating at tables and even throwing away food. In tourism we need to support each other; not function like this,” John Lobo, SOWS general secretary, said, adding, “Our shacks are on government land; the government should support us.”
He said the Tourism Department needs to take a practical approach after the recent HC order on soak pits and bore wells. “In the past we were promised a sewage pipeline only for shacks. Most of the beach shacks in Calangute-Candolim don’t have road access. How are sewage tankers going to reach them? It is out of necessity that they have dug soak pits,” he said.
He said while government beach shacks are not allowed to make soak pits and bore wells, owners of private properties just behind the shacks have dug wells and soak pits. “Large resorts are releasing sewage into nullahs, fields, rivers, but nobody is doing anything. If the tourism minister wants, we can take him around and show him where this is happening,” Lobo said.
Lobo said he along with others was sent by the State government to Bali, Indonesia, to study beach tourism there. “After that we gave our suggestions. In Bali there are toilet and water facilities every 100 mtrs, so the shacks don’t have to do anything. Here we pay so much in fees, the government should give us the infrastructure. But our suggestions were ignored, because the tourism ministers and tourism directors are only interested in filling their pockets,” he said.
He said they are also opposed to the Tourism Department’s plan to build the shacks for them from next season as it would be another money making racket. They also reiterated their demand that the new beach shack policy should be finalised and shacks allotted before the end of this season.
“The Tourism Department should not finalise the new beach shack policy without consulting shack owners. So far they have not consulted us. Any report that we have been consulted are false,” Lobo said.
SOWS members also said the State government should appoint one-two shack owners on the State tourism promotion board as they are aware of the ground situation on beaches.
