MARGAO
As domestic tourists came in droves on the world-famous iconic beach, so were the migrant hawkers, who were seen making merry on the beach belt on Sunday.
Women migrant hawkers were seen everywhere on the beach, right near the shacks and on the entrance to the beach with no law-enforcing agency to rein in on the illegal hawkers.
Every year, Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar promises to crack a whip against the migrant hawkers creating a nuisance for the visitors right on the beach, but in vain.
It could not be ascertained whether the Colva police or the Tourism police have still not yet received instructions from the South Goa district police Chief, SP Pankaj Kumar Singh, to crack a whip against the illegal hawkers on the beach.
As usual, the Colva panchayat washed off its hands saying the beach belt comes under the jurisdiction of the Tourism department.
Sources in the know say that hawking activities on the beach, run by the migrants, especially women, are being carried out in a systematic manner and with patronage of the police and the politicians.
Questions are being raised in local circles why the local police or the Tourism police cannot reign in on the illegal hawkers when even the Tourism Minister has time and again spoken of banning all migrant hawking activity on the beach belt.
