Panaji: Deputy Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly Michael Lobo today said that the waste on the shorelines will affect the tourism inflow in the coastal state and questioned Tourism depatment’s ability to handle the contract for cleaning beach garbage.
He said that the scene on State’s beaches is grim, and gradually it will start affecting the tourism footfalls during the peak season starting from this month.
“There is urgent need to collect the garbage by appointing an agency. They can extend the contract to the same agency by some months till another company is contracted with the work,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker said that the State Tourism Department has begun a process to re-tender the work of collecting garbage on the beaches.
“The tender got response of a single bidder and that is why they have extended the time to fill tender by another 15 days,” he said.
Lobo has demanded that State run Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) should be mandated the work to invite tenders for garbage collection, rather than the tourism department, which is ill-equipped to handle such things.
“We have created Goa Solid Waste Management Corporation only with the aim to handle garbage in the State. The garbage which is collected from the beaches are taken to the GWMC plant at Saligao (North Goa),” he said.
“Tourism Department is not a competent body to handle such technical work, which should be done by GWMC, which has 22 professional engineers on board who know the issue threadbare,” he said.
Lobo said that he would be meeting Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar this evening requesting him to stop the process initiated by Tourism Department to invite bids for garbage cleaning on the beaches.
