panaji upset over not being consulted the shack owners welfare society sows on wednesday said it would fight the tourism departments unilateral decision to set up model shacks on goas beaches tourism in goa began with beach shacks we are the pioneers of the business so why does the tourism department want to displace us by bringing in big players sows president cruz cardozo told toijust last week the tourism department unveiled its plan to set up four model beach shacks at a cost of rs four crore which it said would subsequently be leased out the department hadnt even consulted us once before coming up with the idea of model beach shacks we dont even know whom these shacks will be leased to cardozo said while expressing apprehensions that the governments move could compromise the interests of the existing operatorssows is expected to hold a meeting next week to thrash out the issue and has called for the support of all the coastal mlas cardozo said the group would also submit a memorandum to tourism minister rohan khaunte and would meet chief minister pramod sawant we believe the tourism minister has been misguided by his department and its officials he said anywhere between 350 and 360 beach shacks are allotted by the tourism department annually and the allottees are selected through a draw of lots only local unemployed men and women are eligible to apply for beach shack allotmentsanother issue that has been niggling the shack operators is the amount of money they will have to invest if the government ultimately implements model shacks concept all along the states coastline so far we have been building shacks within our means and each operator spends rs seven to eight lakh while costs for a few may even go up to but not exceed rs 10 lakh said cardozo but now the tourism department wants to spend rs one crore for each model shack will they sell gold there we will oppose the governments plan tooth and nailformer president of the travel and tourism association of goa ttag savio messias said the proposed cost of rs four crore to build four temporary structures is exorbitant