MARGAO
As the State braces up for a new tourism season, feverish activity was spotted at the world-famous Colva beach on Sunday, with beach shack owners racing against time to put the temporary shacks in place.
That’s not all. It’s now amply evident that the migrant hawkers, though banned by the Tourism department from carrying out business activities on the beach, are all set to be part of the new season for want of action by the law enforcing agencies.
In fact, Sunday saw the Colva beach playing host to a good Sunday crowd, as visitors headed to the world-class beach.
After the tourism officials gave the nod for the erection of beach shacks across the State, the erection of beach shacks was seen along the Colva beach belt. Normally, the shacks make their presence felt at the coastal belt ahead of the Dussehra festival.
With work on the beach shacks underway in full swing, sources said it may take less than a week to complete the work of erecting the shacks before they can be thrown open for the customers.
The Tourism department had last week also cleared the NOCs for the water sports operators from the South Goa district.
While the tourism stakeholders are bracing up for a successful season, the tourism department and the law enforcement agencies seemed to have run out of ideas on how to rein in the illegal migrant hawkers on the beach belt.
If warnings issued by former Tourism minister Manohar Ajgaonkar that hawkers have no place on the beach belt had gone begging, a similar warning issued by incumbent Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte seemed to have no impact on the ground.
For, Sunday virtually saw hordes of migrant hawkers right on the beach belt, as they had a field day in the absence of law enforcing agencies around, throwing up questions about whether the powers that be and the law enforcing agencies have all resigned to their fate over their failure to crack a whip against the banned hawking activity on the beach.
