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Tourism Dept and Captain of Ports lock horns over tourism jetty policy
Dept of Tourism refutes allegations of CoP; the latter had alleged that the former is overriding its statutory authority while formulating the Tourism Jetty Policy
Team Herald
PANJIM: The Department of Tourism has refuted the allegations made by the Captain of Ports (CoP) over the draft Tourism Jetty Policy in a section of press as false and misleading.
The Department of Tourism while clarifying on the claims of the CoP regarding non consultation has stated that the allegations are false and baseless. It claimed that during the Jetty Management Committee (JMC) meetings which were also attended by representative of CoP, upon review of operating mechanism of passenger cruise vessels for tourism purposes, the committee decided to draft a new Jetty Policy to facilitate smooth and efficient operations of cruise vessels for tourism purposes. Further, the committee also decided to enforce single window computerised ticketing system for all the vessels operating across the entire Mandovi stretch to curb the tax evasion by the operators.
“Over a period of five months, continuous interactions had been tried with CoP to gather as many inputs as possible. Thus, the claim that Captain of Ports Department was not consulted during policy formulation is false and, misleading,” said Tourism Deputy Director Ganesh Teli.
The Tourism Department has reiterated that the Jetty Policy does not infringe the power of Captain of Ports provided by the Indian Ports Act, the Inland Vessels Act, and rules and there is no intention to usurp the powers of the CoP by vested interests. The department is not overriding the Captain of Port’s statutory authority and jurisdictional rights.
The Tourism Department also said CoP will still remain as the licensing authority for approving any new vessel on any rivers in Goa. The Policy only regulates the tourism related activities.
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