Some good news arrived from heaven recently. The expensive burden of dismantling the seasonal shacks on the beaches in May prior to the onset of the monsoon is no longer necessary. An authoritative body in Delhi has made it possible, and this vexing annual expense is no longer a requirement for people who operate seasonal shacks. Good news, indeed.
CM Manohar Parrikar can do what his fellow politicians in Goa are unable to do, pull out political rabbits from a Delhi topi. He deserves credit for this achievement and we need not be stingy in our appreciation of it. Strangely enough, latest media reports inform us shack operators who have seasonal shacks on land belonging to the government Tourism Department along the Baga-Sinquerim stretch have to renew their contract every year. What exactly does this mean for seasonal shack operators? For years now, beach shacks were required to be dismantled based on a valid scientific principle. The beaches need time to recuperate from the damage inflicted on it by all of us, locals and tourists, international or not. Give Mother Nature enough time to put her house (and, of course, our house too) in order or we who use our natural resources and the environment recklessly without a second thought might have to pay a price for it. The free-flowing monsoon winds need the freedom to repair all the damage we have done to the beaches during the course of the year. The government needs to take this helpful attitude a step further by paying for the removal of the beach shacks. The government has given away freebies and other offerings for a variety of reasons so why not one more for a very good reason - to protect the house which we inhabit, the beach environment of Goa? Shouldn't the government - Delhi or State - pay for the removal of seasonal beach shacks to protect our environment and beaches- the star of Goan tourism? Will the monsoon wash away some of the shacks? On a full moon night during the tourist season shacks have been known to have uninvited water inside the shacks! As this will be the first monsoon when shacks on the beaches will not be dismantled we might be heading for troubled waters. We need to treed carefully or might find ourselves up to our necks in trouble.
