Human Rights Defenders, an NGO based in South Goa, has opposed the mechanized beach cleaning process that the tourism department plans to undertake through Ram Engineering, Mumbai, for cleaning some of the beaches along the 105-km coastline of the state. The NGO submitted a memorandum to the tourism department giving it ten days time to change its decision and not proceed with the mechanized beach cleaning. It also threatened to stage a protest outside the department in Panaji, if their demand in not met. Addressing a press conference on Monday, Advino Fernandes from the NGO stated that the agency selected is actually involved in housekeeping works and maintaining theaters, and thus lacks expertise in beach cleaning and also has no ability to scientifically handle wet garbage. He further charged that manual beach cleaning contractors were not able to participate in the new comprehensive beach cleaning bids due to unreasonable eligibility conditions. Earlier, the government spent 2 crore for cleaning beaches along Goa's coastline, however it is now shelling out 24 crore - a figure, Fernandes claimed was too high for cleaning of beaches. Stating that the NGO is not in favour of mechanized beach cleaning, he said "It would be useless during the monsoons and more importantly it will affect the beach environment and the local fisher folk community, as they will have no space left to tug their boats and dry nets on the beach". Fernandes also pointed out that Dr Zakir Ansari, a senior scientist and consultant at National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has been repeatedly warning that the use of machinery for cleaning will kill marine life besides causing damage to the beaches due to movement of sediments.