from special correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Goa (MB)

Panaji, Oct 26: In an attempt to prevent environmental damage, the Goa Tourism Department on Wednesday decided to reduce the number of beach shacks from 258 to 231 during the ensuing tourist season.

"The numbers are restricted as per the directions of Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), which is thoroughly screening the place of shacks so as to prevent environmental damage," Tourism Minister Fransisco Pacheco said.

He said for the first time tourism department had formulated the policy teaming up with the GCZMA.

The policy will be approved within a couple of days and shack licences would be granted thereafter as tourism season has already started, Pacheco said.

Of the total shacks permitted, North Goa's coastline will have 148 shacks while South Goa will have 83.

Palm-thatched shacks are prime attraction for the tourists. They can sit along the seashore and enjoy their drink or food sitting in the shack or lazing on the beach-bed attached to the shack.

The policy envisages that there will be no shacks in the inter-tidal zone and that they should be located as separated as possible from the high tide line.

Streamlining the entire licensing procedure, the policy makes it mandatory for the tourism department's 'no objection certificate' (NOC) to install shacks even in the private spaces. "Director of tourism has already issued circulars to village panchayats in this regard," Pacheco said.

The shack-owners, who usually litter garbage around, will now be responsible for the cleanliness of the beach stretch along their sheds. Tourism department and the respective village panchayats will provide all the help to shack-owners to keep the beach clean, the minister stated.

Giving preference to the old-timer shack-owners, the policy states that 90 per cent of the licences would be given to experienced, while only ten per cent newcomers will be welcome.

"There are many people who have been doing this vocation for decades... we don't want them to be kept unemployed this season," Pacheco stated.