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Panaji: State Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte on Friday said that the Beaches of the state would be restored to its past glory with the active participation of all the stakeholders.
Khaunte said that the State needs to fight back the various challenges on its shoreline including the environmental degradation, as the tourism sector should not meet the same fate that of the mining industry.
The burgeoning Iron Ore industry has come to a standstill since 2018 after Supreme Court directives that quashed 88 mining leases.
The Tourism minister said that all the State government and the Stakeholders should start thinking on how our Beaches should be. “The real challenge is to make the Beaches how they were in the past. We need to restore their past glory,” Khaunte said.
“We have seen how the families were in doldrums just because mining collpsed. We cannot allow it to happen to the tourism sector,” he said.
Khaunte said that the state needs to also give a sense of security to the tourists while creating the infrastructure required for the growth of the segment.
“People who are not from Goa work as touts, pimps and open illegal massage parlours and they misguide the tourist,” he said adding that they show Goa in a wrong way to the tourists.
“They are involved in extorting money from the tourists. Such things has to stop,” the minister said.
Khaunte said that the Traffic police are seen selectively issuing challans to the tourists. “We had a meeting with DGP and other officials asking the police to stop harassing tourists,” he said.
Speaking about the basic amenities on the Beaches, Khaunte said that the Tourism Department is planning to have two model beach stretches by September, this year, where all the amenities would be provided.
He said that the integrated plan would be implemented on the Beach which will include cleaning of the stretch, surveillance and other aspects.
