PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has cautioned the Goa State Pollution Control Board and the district authorities against reopening beach shacks unless it is personally verified that they have all the necessary permissions in place to operate the shacks.
Earlier this week, the district authorities began the process of sealing the shacks as per directions from the High Court which had ordered the North Goa Collector to ensure that the orders of closure issued to beach shacks along the Calangute-Candolim beach stretch, who have been operating without the mandatory consent to operate from the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), are duly implemented.
In a hearing on Wednesday, the State informed the High Court that the process of sealing of the shacks was underway, but pointed out that several shacks had applied for GSPCB permissions which were in the process of being granted, that opened up the possibility of unsealing the shacks.
The High Court however, directed the authorities to ensure that all mandatory permissions are in place before the shacks can be unsealed.
The High Court ordered the sealing of shacks after the GSPCB informed the court via an affidavit filed on Monday that out of 167 shacks on the Calangute-Candolim beach stretch, 161 beach shacks are operating without any consent from the GSPCB as required under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
“The records now show that the shack operators have operated these shacks almost for the entire season without even bothering to apply for or belatedly applying but not obtaining any such consent to operate. It is quite shocking that the Directorate of Tourism, the GSPCB, the GCZMA and all other authorities who are enjoined to ensure that the rule of law prevails have turned Nelson’s eye to this unfortunate situation,” the High Court bench of Justices M S Sonak and Valmiki Sa Menezes had said.
The High Court hit out at the Tourism Department for failing to implement the terms and conditions subject to which it had issued such licences.
The Directorate of Tourism initially grants a provisional licence to a shack allottee. However, the provisional licence states that the same is issued to facilitate the shack allottees to obtain required NOCs from the concerned authorities such as Panchayat/ Municipality, Electricity Department, Excise, Health and Food and Drugs, etc, to commence the business activities in the shacks. Once the shack allottee erects the shack at the demarcated location and produces all the requisite NOCs from the concerned authorities for carrying out business activities in the shack, the Tourism Department will issue a final licence.
Only after such a final licence is issued can the shack allottee actually carry out the business activities from the allotted shack.
