PANAJI
Ajgaonkar chaired a meeting of enforcement stakeholders and discussed ways of framing rules for fixing accountability and responsibility, as well as to ensure its strict implementation. The issue of pre-empting unauthorised activities from being carried out by shack operators, water sports operators, unauthorised vendors or other tourism stakeholders also came up for discussion.
“The Department of Tourism has been directed to formulate new rules and regulations or amend existing laws to give more teeth to the department in cracking down on unauthorized and illegal activities taking place along the beach belt of the state,” the Tourism Department said in a statement after the meeting.
As part of the plan, a joint action committee is proposed to be constituted comprising representatives from the Department of Tourism, Goa Police, Captain of Ports and others to study and frame necessary guidelines needed to clamp down on illegalities along the beach stretches.
During the month of May till date, a total of 594 cases were booked by Goa Police for unauthorized tourism activities being carried out along the beach belt as against 484 reported between January to April 2017. Goa Police, on Tuesday, presented this data to the Tourism Minister as a follow-up action taken from the first review meeting chaired by Ajgaonkar in the first week of May.
Reviewing the case on the death of a jet-ski operator which occurred last month at Varca, Ajgaonkar directed the Department of Tourism to suspend the licence of the water sports operator pending completion of the hearing and investigation in the matter.
