AP Steps In To Restore ‘Blue’ Tag For Rushikonda Beach

During the festival season, Rushikonda beach was visited by a record number of people. The 600-metre beach stretch was drawing 70,000 to one lakh people during the festival season leading to heavy traffic congestion and accumulation of garbage

Visakhapatnam: After facing severe flak from the twitterati and other micro-blogging site users, the Andhra Pradesh State Government has taken corrective steps at Rushikonda beach, the most frequented beaches in Andhra Pradesh for revocation of suspension of Blue Flag Certification by Copenhagen-based Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE).

As a sequel to the controversy, APTDC Managing Director Kata Amarapali has issued orders for immediate repatriation of K Gnanaveni, Deputy Collector, from the post of District Tourist Officer to her parent department. Regional Director, AP Tourism Authority and Executive Director of APTDC K Ramana has been relieved from his responsibilities. The twin transfers have been done on ‘administrative grounds,’ according to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

Earlier, the authorities faced a lot of trolling on the social media after a post went viral disclosing that on the recommendation of Blue Flag India, the certification has been suspended. The authorities were immediately told to rectify within 10 days to reconsider revocation of the suspension notification. The grounds cited by BFI for suspension of the coveted certification were deteriorating public toilets, changing rooms, accumulated water, garbage littering, inadequate parking, malfunctioning of CCTV cameras and damaged walkways.

“Rushikonda is the most popular beach spot in the State and it needs continuous care for maintaining sanitation and cleanliness so that the visitors will turn into brand ambassadors to spread tourism potential of our city,” P Srinivasa Kumar, a travel operator, told Bizz Buzz.

Following corrective steps initiated by the district administration following a meeting convened by District Collector MN Harendhira Prasad and direction given to Regional Director, Tourism on February 17, to improve cleanliness, a team from Blue Flag Foundation, Pune, is expected to revoke the suspension after a social audit shortly.

Harendhira Prasad clarified that in social media wrongly it is being circulated that the certificate has been cancelled. He said it is suspended due to certain reasons and pointed out that during the festival season, Rushikonda Beach was visited by a record number of people. Officials said the 600-metre beach stretch was drawing 70,000 to one lakh people during the festival season leading to heavy traffic congestion and accumulation of garbage.

Besides Rushikonda, the most popular Blue Flag locations include Golden Beach, Odisha, Shivrajpur Beach, Gujarat, Kappad Beach, Goa, Ghoghla Beach, Diu and Radhanagar Beach, Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Blue Flag is issued based on several parameters including its cleanliness and hygiene and its scope to spread environmental education, accessibility, connecting people with the surroundings, encourage people to learn about the environment and display information on biodiversity, ecosystem and environmental phenomena.

Sources said lapse of contract by the private agency engaged for cleaning led to deteriorating sanitation at the Rushikonda beach. Meanwhile, the authorities have decided to improve the CCTV coverage, introduce a better waste management system and parking and improve the headcount of policemen and security personnel for better crowd management on weekends and festival days.