MARGAO
Will Union Minister for Tourism Kishan Reddy have a suggestion or two for the Goa Tourism Minister and officials how to go about to put a stop to migrant hawkers and vendors posing a nuisance and a menace for the visitors at the world famous Colva beach?
For, Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar’s repeated promises to crack a whip on hawking at the beach belt seemed to have not changed the ground reality for the better. That’s not all. Tourism Director’s instructions to the Colva police to come down heavily on migrant hawkers creating nuisance for the visitors also has no takers.
Otherwise, consider this. Dozens of migrant hawkers and vendors literally invaded the Colva beach on Friday, to sell their wares to the visitors. Even as officials supervised the fine tuning of the works at the beach square ahead of the visit of the Union Minister to Colva on Saturday, the migrant hawkers literally had a field day on the beach, with no police around to keep them on bay.
While a cop was spotted on the beach square, issuing a fine on a visitor for smoking at public place, no policemen were found on the beach to act against hawking.
Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar had been repeatedly warning of action against hawking on the beach, but no action from the concerned authorities have been forthcoming against the illegal hawking and vending, only raising suspicions whether the illegal activity has the patronage from the political class.
A month ago, the Colva panchayat had dashed off a letter to the Tourism Director, drawing his attention to the menace by hawkers on the beach, but in vain. The only action that came from the Tourism Director was a letter sent to the Colva police to act against hawking, but in vain.
