Can a new village office change the manner in which tourists are taken for a ride, literally, on the backwaters of Poovar?
Well, that’s what Anto Marceline, president of the Poovar grama panchayat, believes. As of now, he says, the few boating operators in Poovar are functioning without the requisite licences, without adequate safety precautions and above all, charging tourists as per their whims. Pointing out that boating charges here ranged from Rs.400 to Rs.600 per person for a couple of hours, Mr. Marceline says this was when in popular tourist areas such as Alappuzha, an entire boat will come for around Rs.300-Rs.400 for an hour. The current approach in Poovar is self-destructive, he says.
This is where the new village office, he hopes, will make a change. A beginning will be made by recovering the encroached spots where the boat operators now have their boarding and docking centres. There are several plots of ‘puramboke’ land on either side of the Neyyar river that are encroached upon by boat service and tourism operators. These too will be recovered and after survey procedures to affix proper survey numbers, the land will be released back to them but with proper taxing systems.
“We want to promote tourism, but in a responsible and legal way,” he says. There are 11 illegal boat operators, and with some of them operating from more than one centre, the total is around 15. All that they have is a fitness certificate for the vessel from the Ports Department. The village office and the panchayat will make efforts to bring in a licence system and also to ensure adherence to safety precautions by the operators, Mr. Marceline says.
Streamlining of the tourism services will not be the only priority for the new village office, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday. Identifying and acquiring 50 cents of land for a mini-slaughterhouse, for which the panchayat was sanctioned Rs.40 lakh, and completion of survey of land to settle the claims of over 300 title deed applicants will also be accorded top priority.
