Tourists and locals can help the Goa government keep beaches clean by lodging complaints through mobile messaging app WhatsApp.
The complainant will have to geo-tag the littered site and send the location’s GPS through WhatsApp. The message will be forwarded to the numbers of cleaning personnel and will be monitored by the area contractor and the ministry of tourism.
Action will be taken within 24 hours of the complaint, state tourism officials said.
The numbers on which these complaints can be made will be announced by the tourism department soon.
“We want people to come and appreciate the beauty of the state,” tourism minister Manohar Azgaonkar said, adding that the move will be a temporary one.
“This process will be both convenient and helpful in keeping a watch that the complaints are solved by the contractor,” he said.
At a meeting during which the proposal came up, Azgaonkar also reviewed other issues concerning tourism and measures being taken to curb nuisance on the beaches by hawkers and other unauthorised activities.