Teenagers drown at sea
PANAJI: Three teenagers from Karnataka drowned near the Colva beach on Wednesday evening. This took the number of students, who have died in Colva, to six since the New Year.
The students from the Government Pre-University Terkeri, Chikmagalur, belonged to a group of 69, including six professors, who came to Goa on an educational tour. While the body of Anil Akkamanchi (18) could be recovered, that of Chetan (19) and Manjunath Swamy (19) are still missing. Three final year students from the School of Agricultural Science and Rural Development in Nagaland also met with the same fate on January 1 this year.
There was only one life guard in Colva when the tragedy struck. But there has been much controversy over the fitness and swimming standards of the life guards posted in the beach. “Most of them can hardly swim,” said Cortalim MLA, Matanhy Saldanha.
Fatima D’Sa, chairperson, Goa Tourism Development Corporation, said: “Students and even adult tourists refuse to listen when advised not to venture into the sea. Usually, they are intoxicated which further puts their life at risk.”
Goa’s beaches became infamous especially after the monsoons last year when some tourists, who came there for revelry, were sucked into the sea. According to official figures, around 45 people drowned in 2006.
22 out of them drowned in the Calangute-Baga belt alone. This put the focus on lifeguards (69 of them employed on the 23 beaches on north and south Goa) who, incidentally were on strike demanding better wages and improved facilities.
At least, six tourists drowned during their month-long strike.
According to Saldanha, “The government has not even put floaters as a warning to tourists. The floaters act as marks beyond which tourists shouldn’t venture.”
Lilee D’Costa, who runs a restaurant in Candolim, said: “Every year, more and more shacks come up and they acquire chaise lounges for tourists to sunbathe. The beaches are so crammed that there is no place to walk, forget about space for the lifeguards to survey the beach and spot danger.”
“When the government advertised for 100 lifeguards, 149 applicants were put through a swimming test. Only one passed,” Fatima D’Sa told DNA.
“We requested the government for relaxation of rules and argued that education did not matter as long as the lifeguards were good swimmers,” she said.
Since then, the process of recruiting 70 lifeguards is on and they should be out on the job in two weeks, D’Sa said.
