PANAJI: Minister of Tourism Babu Azgaonkar informed that presently there is no monitoring committee to monitor the beach cleaning work done by appointed beach cleaning agency and such committee will be appointed in future.
It may be recalled that the state government had appointed Drishti as a stopgap arrangement in December 2016 for cleaning of beaches after it had discontinued the services of Mumbai-based contractors “ Ram Cleaners and Developers Pvt Ltd and Bhumika Cleartech Services, which had bagged the contract in 2014 for South Goa and North Goa, respectively.
The Drishti Life Saving Pvt Ltd was assigned work from December 2016 to clean beaches of Goa and bill of around Rs 18.8 crore was paid to Dristi till. The extension of work is given for an additional 105 days to Drishti for around 2.5 crores.
Babu gave this answer while replying to the question of former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat who asked whether a committee was appointed to monitor the cleaning done by the appointed agency.
Velim MLA Filip Neri Rodrigues along with Kamat had tabled the question on beach cleaning seeking the status of tender floated to select an agency in October 2018 for providing comprehensive services for cleaning of the various beaches.
Former chief minister Digambar Kamat warned tourism minister for allowing beach cleaning contract for two years without choosing the contractor through tendering process.
The tourism minister Babu Azgaonkar told the House that allotment of work was done in accordance with the rule book.
‘The stop-gap arrangement of having Drishti Life Saving Pvt Ltd, for cleaning beaches was done with the approval of the finance department, and in accordance with Goa Financial Rule “ 184’ said Azgaonkar while responding to Kamat’s advice during question hour.
The tender was floated for comprehensive beach cleaning for five years at Rs 59 crore. A pre-assessment survey of beaches was conducted through a project management consultant M/s Darashaw and co, said Azgaonkar.
Opposition members pointed out that estimates of beach cleaning escalated significantly since 2010. In 2010-11, tourism department spent Rs 90 lakh and Rs 80 lakh for North and South Goa beaches, Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, said the same work was tendered for Rs 7 crore for each district in 2013 when another agency was appointed.
Lourenco also questioned why tourism department can’t hire employees and carry out beach cleaning.
