Pleas of Sarpanchas to send just 2 constables to patrol has fallen on deaf ears
Illegal migrant beach hawkers mingle among tourists along the Salcete coastal belt in the tourist village of Cavelossim and the world class Colva beach.
Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
A new tourism season is on the anvil, but the same old issues, including illegal migrant hawkers, strays, absence of tourist police et al, plaguing Salcete beach belt have come to haunt the stakeholders and local bodies yet again.
A year ago, when a delegation of Salcete coastal belt Sarpanchas had called on Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte to address these issues, the heads of the villages of Cavelossim, Colva and other panchayats had all returned back with an assurance that the ground reality would soon change for the better.
In fact, if the Tourist taxi operators from Saxtti coastal belt have sounded the warning bell to all the powers that be to protect their business interests or face protests, local Panchayat bodies along Salcete coast belt anxiously look forward to Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte and officials of the tourism department to rid the beach belt of illegal migrant hawkers, besides strays including dogs and cattle.
A visit to the beach belt at Colva and Cavelossim would reveal that migrant beach hawkers reign supreme at the world famous beach. In the absence of Tourist police or the local police, it’s not uncommon to find visitors resorting to liqour consumption on the beach belt when public drinking stands banned by the state government.
The situation is no different along the Cavelossim beach belt, considered the hub of starred resorts and hotels. The Sarpanch of the village Panchayat of Cavelossim, Dixon Vaz has pointed out that things have not changed for the better in the last one year.
The Cavelossim Sarpanch has dashed a letter to the Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte, seeking his intervention to put a mechanism in place, to stop the migrant hawkers and others disturbing the visitors to the beach belt.
“As the new tourist season is fast approaching, the Village Panchayat Cavelossim have written to the Tourism Minister Rohan Kaunte to provide at least two tourist police constables at the Cavelosim beach belt on daily basis to drive away the hawkers, beggars and other vendors who mete out harassment to the tourists on the beach”, he said.
He added: “I have personally met the Tourism minister and appraised him about the situation in Cavelosim and asked his assistance as he had assured last year that the tourism department will deploy police in all beach areas”.
At the world famous Colva beach, which receives visitors in droves almost everyday, there is no mechanism in place to reign in the migrant hawkers and vendors. In fact, hordes of migrant hawkers invade the beach belt on any given day. And, if locals are to be believed, the number of migrant vendors will go up considerably once the tourism season starts, especially with the erection of the beach shacks along the beach belt.
To tide over the situation in view of complaints received by the Panchayat body, the Colva panchayat had deployed a group of persons to drive away the hawkers, but in vain. Colva Sarpanch Suzie Fernandes pointed out that the Panchayat took the decision to deploy private security to keep the hawkers at bay.
“In the absence of a vehicle at the disposal of the team deployed by the Panchayat and given the stretch of the Colva beach, the team has been struggling to keep the strays at bay. The panchayat had written to the Tourism department in the past to deploy tourist police to act as a deterrent, but we have not still not found the men-in-uniform patrolling the beach belt”, Suzie said.
Colva village also faces another pending issue of sorts, garbage removal from the beach parking area. The beach contractor has restricted his activities on the beach stretch, leaving the parking lot unattended and dirty. With repeated pleas made by the Colva Panchayat to the government to include the beach parking lot in the jurisdiction of the beach cleaning contractor, falling on deaf ears, the Colva Panchayat has been left with no option than to rope in daily wage women labourers to keep the parking area clean.
