PANAJI
Nearly five years after it was shut, the refurbished Dona Paula jetty was on Saturday inaugurated and thrown open for public use, albeit at an entry fee of Rs 50 for adult tourists, while locals will not be charged.
The jetty, which will also entail an 'entry fee' of Rs 25 for tourists between the age of 10 and 18, was developed by the Goa Tourism Development Corporation under the Central government's 'Swadesh Darshan' scheme.
Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte, whose birthday it was on Saturday, did the honours inaugurating it in the presence of Saligao MLA, Kedar Naik and local CCP councillor, Nelson Cabral.
Notably, none of the Monserrate's attended the function which was in the jurisdiction of the Taleigao constituency, considered their pocket borough.
The three Monserrate's -- Revenue Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate, his wife Jennifer Monserrate who is the local MLA and their son Rohit who is the CCP Mayor -- were strangely all missing from an official government function.
While inaugurating the jetty, Khaunte said tourists will be charged Rs 50 as 'entry fee' while tourists aged between 10 and 18 will be charged half the rate.
Khaunte argued that the logic of levying an entry fee was to promote "responsible and sustainable" tourism even as he asserted that entry for 'locals' was free.
The renovation of the jetty including the approach causeway-like bridge had been shut on grounds that the structures were 'unsafe' back in November 2018 by the North Goa District Magistrate (Collector) and was hit by controversy after there was no sign of any renovation work for nearly three years.
Several locals who ran business stalls at the site were agitated as they were displaced, but nothing moved at the bureaucratic and government levels at a time when policy decision making was badly hit first by incapacitation of the late Manohar Parrikar and later by the Covid pandemic.
There was also much wrangling and jostling over which agency would execute the work with a clash of jurisdiction between the tourism department and the CCP, the latter controlled by Monserrate, who was then still not aligned to the ruling BJP.
No sooner, the husband-wife Monserrate duo jumped aisles to embrace the BJP in 2019, files began moving but the process again hit a roadblock due to the pandemic and work only began in February 2021 through the GTDC.
The absence of the Monserrate's at Saturday's inaugural function was therefore notable.
