MARGAO
A storm is brewing in the coastal village of Cavelossim, the tourism hub playing host to a host of starred resorts, with traditional fishermen and stakeholders up in arms over what they called a clear agenda to give the village the Blue Flag Certification tag.
Tuesday saw agitated traditional fishermen and other tourism stakeholders descending on the beach to stop the ongoing work of a beach tower.
Reason: These local stakeholders fear that these beach towers together with other infrastructure facilities, namely the tourist facilitation centre, sanitation toilets, etc are just a façade before the Central government takes over the beach belt and displace the fishermen and the local stakeholders from their livelihood and habitat if the beach gets the Blue Flag Certification tag.
If the Cavelossim gram sabha on Sunday resolved to oppose the Blue Flag Certification tag for the tourist village, local residents including fishermen stopped the ongoing work on a tower, what they called as a beach safety tower on Tuesday.
Agitated villagers stopped all work on the tower and have now demanded that the local village panchayat issue a stop work order on all similar projects, including the beach tower, tourists facilitate centre, etc immediately.
The villagers have dashed off a letter to the village sarpanch to issue stop work order and convene an emergency meeting on Wednesday.
In the letter, the villagers recalled that the gram sabha had passed a resolution on 28th February 2021, to oppose the Blue Flag notification and had called for a special gram sabha meeting, but till date no such meeting has been held.
Referring to the March 27 gram sabha held on Sunday, the villagers pointed out that the meeting had unanimously resolved to oppose the Blue Flag notification and to send stop work notice to all the concerned departments under Blue Flag notification.
In the letter, the sarpanch has been told that inspection of the beach has revealed that the beach safety towers and beach safety equipment under the Blue Flag Notification is one of their requirement under such notification to certify Cavelossim beach as Blue Flag Certification. “It is a violation of CRZ notification 2011 as it falls in the eco-sensitive area (intertidal zone) (HTL and LTL) and no such activities and facilities allowed/ permitted as it is CRZ-I area,” the letter stated.
The villagers also attached the photos of the excavation work that is done by the contractors by using lot of concrete and steel which is not permitted under the notification of CRZ 1991-2011.
Facilities part of Swadesh Darshan scheme: Tourism director
MARGAO: Tourism Director Menino D’Souza has said the State government has so far batted only for Miramar beach for Blue Flag Certification tag.
Saying that other beaches in the State have not yet been recommended for Blue Flag Certification, he, however, said tourism amenities are being spurred up along the beach belt, including Cavelossim under the Swadesh Darshan funds.
“As of now, the State government has proposed to give Blue Flag Certification tag for the Miramar beach. No such official proposal has been mooted as far as other beaches are concerned,” he added.
Cavelossim villager, however, has begged to differ. Says Roy Barretto: “If you take a look at the Central government’s order, a number of activities and facilities have been permitted in the CRZ area, including islands. Some of these activities such as toilet blocks, changing rooms, tourist facilitation centres have already come up, indicating that they want to give Cavelossim beach the Blue Flag Certification tag. This is totally unacceptable to the local stakeholders.”
