Goa (INDIA): The sunny tropical beaches in the Western Indian state of Goa, will be free of plastic and other garbage, before hundreds of thousands of European and Indian tourists flock to them again when the post monsoons season begins by October. Speaking to reporters at the State Secretariat chief minister Parrikar said that the menace of garbage, which has been plaguing Goa, in absence of a comprehensive garbage treatment and clearance mechanism, would be however completely under control by next year. “By September you won't see garbage on the beaches,” Parrikar told Bikyamasr.com. “By the 20th of May garbage and construction debris will be being picked up by the PWD (public works department) from national highways and the other roads. Goa has to look clean to the tourists who come here,” Parrikar said, adding that several sites would be identified where the construction debris would be dumped. Ugly tell-tale signs of Goa's construction and real estate boom story can be seen strewn all across the small beach state, especially its roads, in form of heaps of construction-related debris. Trucks are used to surreptitiously dump along the roads, waste of demolished homes and commercial structures, which make way for new ones, reducing the areas in close proximity of the state's road network to repulsive mini hillocks of brick, stone and mortar debris Although, illegal, the inability of successive governments to identify zones for accumulation of such debris, had only added to the problem of disposal of non-biodegradable waste in India's most well known beach tourism destination. The absence of an effective mechanism to treat biodegradable waste in Goa had also reduced open areas, in its infra-structurally over-burdened coastal areas and towns to virtual garbage pits. Parrikar now claims, within one year, a comprehensive mechanism would be put in place by the government. “We are working on setting up a comprehensive program for treating mixed garbage,” Parrikar said. Over 2.6 million tourists visit Goa annually, out of which nearly half a million are foreigners from Europe.
