Bardez villagers are against new tourism policy

Villagers also oppose shifting of casino vessels to Chapora river 

Mapusa: People of Anjuna, Vagator, Sodiem, Camurlim and surrounding areas held a meeting expressing their strong opposition to the new tourism policy, whose draft is ready and is awaiting approval of the state cabinet.

The meeting, that was held on Saturday at Rai Siolim, also opposed shifting of casino vessels to the Chapora river.

At present, the casino vessels are in the Mandovi.

Villagers from Siolim, Sodiem, Vagator, Anjuna and Camurlim, which are situated along the Chapora riverbank, raised concerns over the draft tourism policy and plan arguing that the new policy could spell doom to the villages.

On the casino vessels, the villagers said that if the vessels are moved to the Chapora then there would be adverse impact on the ecology of the region.

Captain Viriato Fernandes of Goencho Avaaz, who also attended the meeting, explained the nuances of the draft policy to the villagers.

Pravin Singh Shetgaonkar and Swapnesh Sherlekar picked holes in technical aspects of the draft policy.

Fatima Fernandes, Amrut Agarwadekar, Kapil Korgaonkar, Ravi Harmalkar, Balbhim Malvankar, Michael D’Souza and Vidhyadhar Agarwadekar strongly opposed the shifting of the casino vessels to the Chapora river.

The villagers decided to hold meetings in different villages of Bardez taluka on the issue.

They also made a decision to raise the concerns at gram sabhas of the panchayats.