the goan I network
MARGAO/PANAJI
The Tourism Department on Wednesday completed the shack allotment process in both North and South Goa, thus paving the way for the erection of these structures for the season, which has already got underway.
In South Goa, the department allotted 103 out of the 108 beach shacks, with five of these going abegging for want of takers.
In North Goa, 296 shacks were allotted, informed Director of Tourism Sanjiv Gadkar.
In the South, Cavelossim-Mobor stretch of the beach will play host to the largest number of beach shacks, around 17 to be precise. These seasonal structures will come up on the beach belt, right from Palolem to Cavelossim, Varca, Benaulim, Colva, Betalbatim, Majorda-Utorda up to Baina beach.
Tourism Deputy Director, South, Rajesh Kale, who conducted the allotment of the beach shacks, later told The Goan five shacks -- two each at Velsao and Bogmalo and one at Zalor -- could not be allotted as there were no applicants.
At Zalor, four beach shacks were up for grabs, but the department received only three applications, Kale said.
At other places such as Fatrade and Varca, there was no competition for the shacks and all the applicants were given allotments.
The allotment process got underway at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex on Wednesday morning under police protection. While police manned the entrance to the room where the allotment process was underway, a videographer captured the process on camera throughout the proceedings, which ended at around 3 pm.
The entire process went off peacefully without any problem. In the case of beach shacks at Colva, a request was made to the Deputy Director that the applicants will strike a compromise on the allotment, but Kale made it clear that compromises, if any, cannot take place when the process was on.
“The entire process has been captured on camera to ensure it was carried out transparently. We invited the
applicants to pick the numbers for the allotment as well as to determine the location of the shacks,” Kale told The Goan.
President of the All Goa Shack Owners Welfare Society Cruz Cardozo has expressed satisfaction over the allotment. “I am happy with transparency in the process,” Cruz said.
When the media drew his attention to the complaints that only certain people were getting preference for the location of the shacks, Cruz said, “No one can point accusing fingers at anyone. The location of the shacks has been determined by lottery. It has been done in a transparent manner.”
Meanwhile, for North Goa, shacks were allotted for beaches of Calangute, Candolim, Keri, Arambol, Mandrem, Morjim, Ozrant, Anjuna, Vagator, Siridao and Chapora.
Earlier, the Tourism Department had notified the shack policy for 2019 to 2022 to erect temporary structures from September 31 to May 31. It may be recalled that after the shack owners approached the High Court, the latter made it clear that 90 per cent of the seasonal structures should be allotted to those having three or more years experience and remaining 10 per cent to those with three years of experience.
