Padubidri beach gets ‘Blue Flag Certificate’ from Centre
Udupi, August 01: The Ministry of Environment and Forest of the Central government has officially declared ‘Blue Flag Certificate’ recognition to the Padubidri beach in the district.
In a statement, deputy commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis and Tourism department assistant director Anitha Bhaskar said that under this programme, it was planned to develop beaches with clean environment and quality water in 13 states which have sea shores, in association with the Society for Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM), Ministry of Environment and Forest, Beach Management Services (BMS). The clean sea shore would decide the healthy tourism and better economic index, they said.
In view of this, the central government has decided to bring sustainable tourism and healthy coastal sea shores under Blue Flag Certificate programme and implement international standard projects, it is said.
Boost for sustainable tourism
The main objective of the Beach Management Services is to encourage the sustainable tourism at Padubidri beach by managing the cleanliness, environmental education and creating awareness to local people, improving quality of water, safety measures, maintenance of security system and sea shore. Along with these factors, priority would also be given to bio-diversity, environment protection, effective solid waste management, basic infrastructure and introducing local food culture and lifestyle to the tourists under this programme, they said.
Sustainable tourism would be encouraged by giving environmental education to the local people, training, campaigning on home stays and others. The programme is being implemented with the help of the district administration, tourism department and local stakeholders. By 2018, it was planned to develop the beach as a quality beach with the help of Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) of Denmark and people could plan for their holidays.
As per the estimation, Blue Flag Certificate beaches would have annual turnover of over Rs 100 crore. So, it would help the Padubidri beach to make its presence in the international level and attract tourists, they said.
Padubidri beach end point
With the help of this international level project, within 500 mts radius of Padubidri beach endpoint, bio toilets, cloth changing rooms, bath rooms, name boards, jogging track, outdoor gym and children’s play area could be developed. To avoid the usage of plastic water bottle, pure drinking water units, solid waste processing and reuse, dust bins, seating arrangements, wheel chair facility for physically disabled, solar power usage, umbrellas, chairs, CCTV vigilance for round-the-clock, watching tower would be provided. All these works would be taken up at a cost of Rs 8 crore and A to Z Infra Services Private Limited of Gurugrama, selected by the central government, would develop the infrastructure. Along with the basic infrastructure development, the company would take care of the maintenance of the beach for next two years, they said.
Blue Flag recognition
As the Padubidri beach has got the Blue Flag recognition, international tourists would visit the beach. Former minister Pramod Madhwaraj had tried to get this recognition for Padukere beach near Malpe.
Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) would give Blue Flag recognition for international standard beaches. More than 60 countries including Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America and others have got the membership of FEE. Such beaches are the favourite spots for foreign tourists.
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Maharashtra Congress chief Patole meets Kharge, dismisses resignation talk as 'rumours'
New Delhi, Nov 25: Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Monday dismissed as "rumours" talk of his resignation following the assembly polls debacle and stressed on "collective accountability" for the defeat.
Patole made the remarks after meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge during which he conveyed that the result had not reflected the sentiments of the people of Maharashtra.
"Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and other national and state leaders were leading Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) from the forefront during the assembly polls. So, we were sure that the trends were in favour of Maha Vikas Aghadi, even the citizens believed that," the Maharashtra Congress chief said.
"If I talk about Nanded, the Lok Sabha bypolls and assembly elections were held on the same day. In Lok Sabha bypolls, our candidate was winning in six assembly seats, whereas, in the assembly elections, we are not winning even a single seat," he said, adding that there cannot be such a "huge difference".
This is the sentiment among the people also and they have stated that this government in Maharashtra was not being formed on their votes, he claimed.
"So, I spoke to Mallikarjun Kharge on this," he added.
Asked whether he had offered to resign or the party had asked for his resignation after the Maharashtra assembly polls defeat, Patole said, "These are all rumours and there is no truth in them. There is collective accountability."
Patole also said he will meet Rahul Gandhi in a day or two and discuss all issues.
"Democracy is being finished. We have discussed that... there was no talk of resignation," he said.
The MVA alliance, comprising the Congress, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Shiv Sena (UBT), was restrained to 46 seats by the Mahayuti that reaped a rich harvest of 230 seats in the 288-member House.
