Panaji: The additional district magistrate of North Goa at Panaji, Mahadev Araundekar, directed the tourism department to issue a circular to all establishments at Anjuna to maintain a backup of closed circuit television (CCTV) footage for a minimum of 30 days to check noise rules violations, he told the high court of Bombay at Goa. The footage should be stored on a hard disk or a cloud-based platform, Araundekar directed. He also instructed the Goa State Pollution Control Board and the deputy collector and SDMs to include the condition of installing CCTVs, while issuing consent/permission.
This ensures that all establishments, including beach shacks operating on beaches under the control of the Goa tourism department, mandatorily have CCTVs installed on their premises.
The footage should be made available to officials of the Goa State Pollution Control Board and the police on demand, he stated. He submitted the compliance in a contempt petition concerning noise pollution violations that the high court is hearing.
The Goa State Pollution Control Board informed the govt that only 20 establishments out of 36 playing amplified music in the open air have electronic sign boards displayed at their premises.
The office of the North Goa collector directed the pollution board to issue directions to the remaining establishments and beach shacks to install electronic noise level display boards to monitor sound decibel levels.