CCTVs compulsory for Goa beach shacks: Tourism Minister

Panaji: Setting up of CCTVs will be made compulsory for Goa`s beach shacks for safety and security of tourists, Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said.

Paruelkar told IANS that the 353 beach shacks will be awarded licences, only if they install CCTVs in their premises as per the newly drafted beach shack policy, which is awaiting the cabinet nod on Friday.

"Beach shacks will have to have CCTVs installed in their premises. This will increase the security for the thousands of tourists who visit the state every year," Parulekar said on Wednesday.

As against granting of annual licences for beach shacks, the new policy will see shacks allotted licences to operate for a period of three consecutive years.

Beach shacks, temporary coconut-leaf thatched eateries, are synonymous with Goa`s beaches and enormously popular with the hundreds of thousands of tourists.

The shacks have been a hub for food, drink, music and a significant value addition to beach tourism for decades, although several anti-narcotics raids in the recent past have yielded drugs and other contraband substances in some beach shacks or on the person of the employees working there.