But the TTAG has been whining for 30 long years about the lack of infrastructure, roads, the increase in luxury taxes; about practically every other thing that for them is not a smooth ride to making their millions. For the TTAG there is never enough hotel rooms, more and more Iffi's to be held, more and more loud music festivals. But when it comes to the taxi drivers and beach shack entrepreneurs, they are like a disease that must be stamped out.
February 24-March 1, 2013
We are being savaged daily
Lionel Messias
Only two things make us smirk us these days at Goanspirit.com, reading the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa’s (TTAG) defence of the indefensible, especially when its spokesman Ralph de Souza speaks or, writes. He condemned (in a published article) the Goa government’s decision to cancel the Russian rock music festival (January 31 and February 1) at Baga. And when, Ekaterina Belyakova, head of the mysteriously named Russian Information Centre in Goa, speaks on behalf of her rather rowdy comrades.
This reminds us of a Russian joke, two actually, which seem relevant here: “Your blood has a permanent vodka content level, no matter you have been drinking or not” and, “People are always asking you if you can get them a cheap deal on something...and you can”.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar himself has said that the Russian organisers were selling tickets without the ‘Great Live Music International Festival’ in Goa even having a proper operating licence.
We found Souza's condemnation of the taxi drivers extremely hurting to middle-income Goans. His take is that the taxi drivers have been cribbing for the past twenty years and still, the government is indiscriminately issuing taxi permits on a daily basis. But the TTAG and its earlier avatars have been whining for thirty long years about the lack of infrastructure, roads, the increase in luxury taxes (done arbitrarily, they have said), demanding that the government (instead of them) promote monsoon tourism etcetera, etcetera; about practically every other thing that for them is not a smooth ride to making their millions. Oh no, for the TTAG there is never enough hotel rooms. They want more and more rooms to be built, more and more Iffi's to be held, more and more loud music festivals. But when it comes to the taxi drivers and beach shack entrepreneurs, they are like a disease that must be stamped out.
What the aam aadmi gets: Green cover vanishing
The government-enforced delay in revising the Regional Plan 2021 and also in identifying and demarcating areas of private forests is leading to massive degradation of the environment. In November 2013, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed the Goa government to identify and demarcate private forests shown as natural cover in the regional plan in Salvador do Mundo (just one example) within six months. As a result, it was found that nearly 8,000 sq. mt. of tropical green forest had been destroyed in Paitona valley.
Early this month, villagers of Ashvem-Morjim complained of a loud music festival attended by 4,000 boisterous people, disturbing the nesting of Olive Ridely turtles on the beach. Morjim (including Ashvem beach) and Mandrem are designated turtle nesting sites under the CRZ 2011. The Ashvem-Morjim stretch had pioneered turtle conservation in the late Nineties. In the past years, the bright illumination and loud music (both banned) and the loud noise of firecrackers has diminished and endangered the turtle sightings. The hotel industry of course sleeps soundly at night knowing their cash registers will jingle yet again in the next morning.
Tipplers on the road
Drunk tourists drink on Goa's beaches (despite the ban) and on its roads and how does the Excise Commissioner Menino D'Souza respond? Typically with a retort that in other states would have incurred the wrath of both the government and ruling party of the day. "Goans go for picnics with bottles of alcohol. What do we do about them?" D'Souza said "we would love to clamp down on tourists drinking in public places but to do that the Goa Excise Duty Act, 1964 must be amended." What is it with these people and why are they so hell-bent on coming to the rescue of the tourist and not the sons-of-soil? Will the commissioner be able to enforce the act, if it is amended? Of course not, because the proposed amendment, just like the Goa Tourist Places (Protection and Maintenance) Act, 2001 will just be another worthless piece of paper.
According to TTAG's president Francisco Braganca, the bigger problem is not tourists drinking in public places, but them riding rented two-wheelers in a drunken state. The answer he said is ban rent-a-bike and rent-a-car services! Do you see the trend here? It's kosher for the hotel and liquor industry to thrive selling unlimited quantities of liquor to the most irresponsible consumers, but it is not acceptable for trades like rent-a-bike services to earn a decent living. How often do you hear a demand for liquor outlets and bars to be restricted, forget the dire need for many of them (especially on highways) to be padlocked or, casinos for that matter? If we can't stop the tourist wine fest on Goa's streets, surely we need to stop the whine festival of our government officials and the TTAG.
