Posh Beachside Club At Candolim To Be Sealed, Orders Goa Coastal Body: Here's Why

In the wake of environmental damage, the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) has, in a recent order, directed that a posh beachside club at Candolim to be sealed. The order comes after a complaint was filed by the Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF).

The complaint, lodged through a resident of Candolim, alleges that a beachside club at Vaddy had been constructed by damaging the original state of the beach, sand dunes and even the beach vegetation.

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Structure comprised of a restaurant, washrooms, pool, deck

According to the CCF, the structures comprised a restaurant, wash rooms, swimming pool, a deck and other amenities. Following the complaint, the GCZMA had issued a show cause notice to the owner of the beach club, but they failed to appear for any of the hearings.

As the owners failed to respond, the GCZMA recently passed an order stating, ¡°The authority is of the opinion that major environmental damage is being caused in the property under consideration and in order to avoid further environmental damage, the property needs to be sealed and commercial operations should be stopped immediately.¡±

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However, despite the GCZMA order dated October 14, the beach club premises have not yet been sealed, CCF president Premanand Divkar said.

Bombay HC took suo moto cognizance in 2007

Back in 2007, the Bombay high court at Goa took suo motu cognizance of the existence of a large number of structures within the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) that were said to be illegal and asked each village panchayat to submit action taken reports.

However, several structures remain standing with no comprehensive list of violators and no action being taken and cases reaching the doors of the NGT only periodically.

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Similar incident in recent past

Meanwhile, in a major setback to the numerous complainants against the construction of a wall on Vainguinim beach, the GCZMA at its 271st meeting has decided to drop the show-cause notice it had issued to the hotel concerned in April.

Besides local residents and the fishermen community, Goa Foundation and others had also petitioned the authority and courts. GCZMA said it¡¯s clear that the hotel had carried out the work as per the approval granted by GCZMA in their property as per the drawings/plans in consultation with Water Resources Department.

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