the goan I network
PANAJI
With the tax rate cut on room tariff announced at the recent GST council meeting held in the State, the hotel industry is gearing up for a good tourism season ahead. But things are not looking too good for the shack operators after the Green Tribunal stayed the government’s shack policy. They have now planned a meeting to discuss the situation on September 23.
The tourism season is set to kick-off in a fifteen days but the government still does not have its coastal plan in place. Already reeling under the steep hike in shack licence fees and stringent measures levied by the government, the NGT order staying the shack policy has further created clouds of uncertainty in their business.
Aggrieved shack operators are feeling let down and are pointing fingers at the government saying not enough is being down by the authorities.
The coastal plan is a major exercise and with a string of failures and missed deadlines, the government should not have taken such risks that will have a ripple effect on tourism, shack owners said.
It may recalled that the Goa coastal plan work order was issued to the Chennai-based National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management on March 29, 2016, with a completion deadline of six months. It is surprising that Goa, despite being a small coastal State, has not finished the task even three years later. Goa, which was asked to take up the draft for approval by September 2018 missed another deadline of August 31, 2019.
The government had opened up public consultations and hearing process only in July this year and the plans were rejected by the people across villages over discrepancies and glaring errors.
Shack owners feel the government has to own responsibility for such delays, but appear to be at the receiving end year after year raising strong suspicion of lobbies working in the background.
