---------------------------------------------------------------------- Do GOACAN a favour, circulate this email to your family members, relatives, neighbours and friends. Help others be BETTER INFORMED ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Colva Forum launches agitation for direct bus service to Colva beach --------------------------------------------------------------------- Volunteers of the Colva Civic and Consumer Forum and GOACAN held a protest demonstration to highlight the plight of the consumers faced with the hardship of not having a bus service from Margao KTC Bus Stand via Mungul & Per Seraulim to Colva Beach. Armed with black flags and placards listing their demands on the eve of World Tourism Day, the Consumer Forum volunteers were geared up for full scale agitation which will draw National & International attention as Colva is a world famous tourist destination. The consumers speaking at the protest stated that many years ago the Govt. officials had the excuse that the railway bridge at Mungul was an obstacle for the bus to ply but today the sheer vested monopoly interest on the one hand and the apathy of the Govt. officials are the cause for this hardship. Thousands of resident Goans, domestic & foreign tourists are being denied access to the Colva beach from the main Margao KTC Bus Stand via Mungul although the journey could be completed in 15 minutes. The present bus route available to Colva Beach is via Benaulim village and the journey takes nearly an hour with all the bus stops along the way. Besides for the residents of Per Seraulim and Gandaulim other then the overloaded taxi service there is no bus service. The irony is there are State Transport buses from the neighboring Karnataka that come to Colva Beach but the State owned Kadamba Transport Corporation Ltd is unable to provide a daily service. In fact on some earlier occasions some vested interested parties stoned the bus that was plying which eventually stopped and the excuse that was presented was that the route is uneconomical to the bus owners. The Consumer Forum and GOACAN has decided to intensify the agitation next week after a delegation meets the various authorities to demand opening of the bus route with adequate buses plying during the day on a daily basis so that it serves the residents as well as the visiting tourists. Although the authorities like the Transport Department had received petitions from individual consumers on the bus service problem nothing concrete was done. As one placard says it all " Transport Department on bus fare hike, IMMEDIATE ACTION !! on bus service to Colva, ABSOLUTE INACTION !! The Consumer Forum had been mobilising consumers to raise the issue at the Gram Sabha of the Village Panchayat of Sernabatim, Vanelim, Colva and Gandaulim and recently a resolution was unanimously passed at the Gram Sabha demanding that a bus service be started to Colva Beach via Mungul & Per Seraulim The Consumer Forum will submit representations to Chief Minister Digamber Kamat, Tourism Minister Francisco Micky Pacheco, Transport Minister Ramkrishna Sudin Dhavalikar, GTDC Chairman & MLA Shyam G. Satardekar, GTDC Vice Chairman Lyndon Monteiro, Tourism Director & GTDC Managing Director Elvis Gomes and Zilla Panchayat Member Nelly Rodrigues demanding that they personally get involved in getting the bus service started on this route. Meanwhile the Consumer Forum will also make representations to the Collector & Chairman South District Consumer Protection Council Mr. G.P. Naik, Director of Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Mr. Sunil P. Masurkar and Mr. Jose Philip D'Souza Minister for Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs for action under the Consumer Protection Act 1986 as the consumers have been deliberately denied this bus service. ---------------------------------------------------------- Press Release from the Colva Civic and Consumer Forum ---------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ GOA CIVIC AND CONSUMER ACTION NETWORK ------------------------------------------------------------ promoting civic and consumer rights in Goa ------------------------------------------------------------ GOACAN Post Box 187 Margao, Goa 403 601 GOACAN Post Box 78 Mapusa, Goa 403 507 mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------
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