from Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji (GA)

Panaji, Nov 21: Garbage problem will not haunt International Film Festival of India (IFFI) beginning on Saturday November 22, chief minister Digamber Kamat said.

The chief minister, who is also heading Entertainment society of Goa, a nodal agency for IFFI, said that the state government is working on the solution for the problem.

The 39th edition of IFFI, beginning from November 22 and ending on December 2, will be attended by 6,000 delegates including 20 foreign delegates, organizers said.

The corporation of city of Panaji (CCP) has threatened not to lift the garbage from IFFI venues – Kala Academy and ESG complex – if state government does not give them the site to dump the waste.

"Urban development minister Joaquim Alemao is working on the problem. We have identified a site which will be given to the CCP to dump the garbage," Kamat said.

"We will not leave IFFI get affected with the garbage problem," the chief minister said.

On the eve of IFFI, garbage issue has attained grave proportion with CCP stopping to lift garbage of 60-odd hotels. The hotel owners have threatened to pull their shutters down during IFFI, creating accommodation crunch in the city.

"We are forced to take this decision as there is total failure of corporation to tackle the garbage issue. How do we operate if authorities stop collecting garbage?" Gaurish Dhond, a member of Goa Hotel and Restaurant Association (GHRA), he said.

He said hotel owners are at the receiving end only because CCP has 'completely failed' in their job. "We had asked the corporation not to stop collecting our garbage but they flatly refused", Dhond, who himself owns a hotel in Panaji city, said.