Goa's anti-litter campaign to roll out soon

The Goa Tourism department is giving finishing touches to its anti-litter campaign, which is aimed at deterring tourists from creating nuisance on beaches and public areas, that includes drinking and cooking in public or littering.

Speaking to reporters in Panaji on Friday after chairing a meeting of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation's Board, the chairman Dayanand Sopte said, that the department is in the process of finalising the government agency for levying of fines on errant tourists. The Corporation functions under the aegis of the state Tourism Ministry.

"Those who are destroying the beauty of Goa by sitting with a beer on a beach and drinking openly or cooking with a cylinder or littering will be fined. We are in the process of finalising the agency which will impose the fine," Sopte, a BJP MLA said.

In January this year, the state legislative assembly passed amendments to the Goa Tourist Place (Protection and Maintenance) Act, 2001, which prohibits drinking alcohol, cooking in public places, including beaches and breaking of glass bottles in public.

Individual offenders from now will be fined Rs. 2,000 for the offences, according to the amendment. If the offences are committed by a group of people, the fine has been hiked to Rs. 10,000.

The crackdown comes amid demands from travel and tourism industry stakeholders who had blamed the Tourism ministry, for a drop in quantity as well as quality of tourists visiting the state in recent times.

Goa is one of the top beach tourism destinations in the country and attracted nearly eight million tourists last year.IANS