Team Herald
PANJIM: The Department of Tourism has issued show cause notices to 38 shack owners for subletting shacks to others even as 108 shacks in the coastal belt of North Goa have been found to have sublet their shacks.
The incident of subletting shacks had come to light following the killing of an Arambol youth at Arambol beach on January 26. Following this, the Department of Tourism officials carried a survey of all the shacks which were permitted for the current tourism season and found that as many as 108 shacks were sublet by the allottees to others mostly to outsiders. The department had permitted erection of 265 shacks along the beach stretch of North Goa.
The Tourism Department will soon issue show cause notices to another 40 shack operators as to why their shack licence should not cancelled and shack dismantled. The hearings to show cause notices is likely to start from February 26.
A similar survey of 98 shacks erected on the beach stretches of South Goa will be undertaken on Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, Director of Tourism Kedar Naik on Friday held a hearing of Manuel Esprito Santo Fernandes, who had been asked to demolish his shack for allegedly subletting it at Arambol beach.
The hearing was held as per the High Court directive and the matter has now been posted for arguments on February 24.
The Dept of Tourism had ordered demolition of shack following a murder of a local Amar Bandekar allegedly by the staff of the concerned shack on January 26.
Target outsiders, spare locals, say shack owners
CALANGUTE: The beach shack operators in the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt have welcomed the Department of Tourism crackdown on sub-letting of shacks, but said the government should keep its assurance not to target shacks being sub-let to locals.
Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS) general secretary John Lobo said the chief minister and the tourism minister had assured them recently that handing over a beach shack to another traditional beach shack operator would not be considered as sub-letting.
“It is common for shack operators to make multiple applications in the names of their family members in the hope of getting a licence because of the lottery system in allotment of shack licences. So many times, a family gets more than one beach shack licence. That extra licence is mostly given to another traditional beach shack operator who could not get a licence. This is a friendly arrangement,” Lobo said.
Lobo said that only those shacks which have been sub-let to outsiders and non-Goans should be considered as sub-let and fined.
However, even those who have given shacks to other locals have received notices, said Manuel Cardozo, president of the Goan Traditional Shacks Owners Association.
“We were given verbal assurances by the chief minister and the tourism minister that these shacks would not be touched, but still they have sent the notices,” he said.
Cardozo said post-Covid, the beach shacks business had largely not been profitable. “Many beach shack operators have suffered losses because of fewer foreign charter tourists. The licence period is also three years, so many who cannot afford to put up their shacks simply rent them out because they can make more money,” he said.
According to Cardozo, the situation could have been avoided if only one member from a family is allowed to apply for licence. “The department of tourism makes more money if there are more applicants, with Rs 10,000 for each application which is non-refundable,” he said.
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Tourism Department cracks down on subletting of shacks – Herald Goa
