MAPUSA
Squarely blaming the police for failure to take action against tourism-related illegalities, Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte said the role of the Tourism department was that of a watchdog and it was for the police to initiate punitive action and stop all illegalities and nuisance taking place on the beaches and public places.
Khaunte also said the police earlier took refuge in the fact that there was no specific Act where they could book the offenders upon, but now the tourism director has promulgated an order where the lawbreakers could be booked under specific section of the IPC and therefore the police chief and his team should get their act right.
“We are very clear that we have to cleanse up the illegalities in the tourism sector and have taken a series of steps including banning several tourism-related activities that create nuisance on beaches and tourism places. But we need very strong support from the police. The whole onus now is on the police as it is their part to handle.”
“Unfortunately, police action is very unsatisfactory. Every day, we have issues because the police are not acting in time. Late night music, illegal guides and touts moving around, hawkers menace etc fall in the ambit of the police,” Khaunte said.
Last month, Tourism Director Nikhil Desai had promulgated an order declaring a set of activities as “nuisance” including cooking in the open, hawking, driving vehicles on beaches and gave powers to police to act against those involved in such illegal activities.
But even after a month, very little action has been seen on the ground as illegal activities continue to take place on the beaches and other areas.
Khaunte said the Tourism department was facing the brunt of criticism due to inefficiency of the Police department to take proactive action against illegalities.
“Initially, when we started a drive against illegal touts the police claimed they could not take action as there was no law in place to take strong action against them. Now, with the promulgation of the order by the director of tourism, the Act clearly specifies how an offender can be penalised. But in spite of that, the police fail to react the way they need to react,” he said.
Recently, the Tourism department had set up flying squads to oversee illegalities taking place on beaches which are monitored by the officials of the department.
“When we are talking of clearing up areas, we need police protection. We need to ensure that police are staffed properly. Otherwise, we will have to have our own force in place which is not possible as the law does not allow policing to the Tourism department. We are only a watchdog and await the police to act upon it,” the tourism minister opined.
He further said that there was an urgent need to tie the loose knots and therefore requested Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to convene a meeting with various departments.
“I have made a written request to the CM calling for a meeting between the Tourism department and the police to be chaired by the CM, so that we are able to handle this issue. Secondly, I have asked him to chair another meeting with the transport minister and the police so that we can sort out the highway issues where traffic jams take place and will only increase as the season peaks,” he said.
