PANAJI
On October 31, 2022, Tourism Director Nikhil Desai, IAS, invoked powers vested in him by the Goa Tourist Places Protection and Maintenance Act, 2001 and by an order declared a set of 10 activities as "Nuisance". These activities, including driving vehicles on shores or cooking in open places among others, Desai decreed in the order will attract fines between Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 besides attracting criminal prosecution under section 188 of the IPC.
Desai also declared in the order that police officers in charge of police stations will act as 'competent authority' to implement the order and penalise violators.
Desai's intended objective behind issuing the order was to clean up the image of Goa's tourist spots, which via the portrayal of such unsavoury happenings in the recent past has seemingly damaged the brand and is an enigma to the government's intended shift in gears to attract a better profile and higher-spending tourists.
What is nuisance
Desai's order declares the following activities as "nuisance": Operation of boating and water sports activities outside notified and demarcated zones; cooking in open spaces and littering; touting and selling tickets for tourism activities in open spaces and spots other than authorized counters; begging in tourist places; unauthorized hawking; illegal placement of deck-beds at beaches; driving vehicles on beaches; drinking liquor in the open and breaking glass bottles in tourist places.
Interestingly, the order issued by Desai also lists as a 'nuisance' and prosecutable the activities aimed at promoting and selling tickets and packages of tourist services offered outside Goa including "Malwan" and "Karwar".
Cops empowered
The order gives powers to police officers manning police stations across Goa to act as 'competent authority' to implement the directive.
Violators of the order, according to Desai, will attract fines of Rs 5,000 and which can extend up to Rs 50,000. They could in addition also be prosecuted under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
There is however no evidence to date that the men-in-uniform are up to it and invoking powers under the order although several incidents of such nuisance have occurred in their jurisdiction in the nearly one-month period since Desai issued it.
The recent case at Arossim wherein an SUV was driven recklessly on the beach resulting in two rare Seagulls being killed is one such instance. The police have indeed booked a case under the IPC but no action seems to be forthcoming in terms of imposing the Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 fine on the violator.
Law dates back to two decades
The law that Desai has invoked to issue the order identifying unpleasant activities and declaring them as a 'nuisance' to be banned and penalised -- The Goa Tourist Places Protection and Maintenance Act, 2001 -- is more than two decades old.
It was piloted by the late Manohar Parrikar in his first stint as Chief Minister back in 2001. It was inspired by the threat posed to the pristine Sinquerim-Candolim-Calangute coastline by the grounded River Princess there and to empower the tourism department to physically remove such threats to important tourist places.
While there is no dearth of powers to act under the law, on the ground, however, there undeniably exists an inherent inertia among the workforce that runs the administration and navigates the government machinery.
Even the 'flying squads' one each in North and South Goa set up by the government specifically to implement the 'nuisance' order are yet to take off.
Khaunte and Desai will therefore have to do more than just come up with rules and orders if their intent to clear up Goa's tourism landscape of the nuisance is to convert to reality.
Crack the whip with a 24x7 control room at Paryatan Bhavan manned by a relatively senior and competent official to co-ordinate with officers heading police stations with jurisdiction over Goa's beaches and other tourist locales, lest the sweeping 'nuisance' order reduces to a mere law on paper.
