Berhampur: Apathy on part of the state government has left the Gopalpur beach in a poorly managed spot.

The beach, a popular tourist spot, now welcomes its visitors with broken chairs and darkness.

"None of the 30 street lights on the beach, except the three high-mast lights, are working. Thirteen out of 16 chairs in the beach part are left broken, while the lone fountain remains non-functional," said Gopalpur notified area council's executive officer Kishore Kumar Sahu.

"We are unable to purchase new street lights."

"The state government has ordered a New Delhi-based company, ESSL, to buy street lights for all the notified area councils and civic bodies in the state. They are also entitled to maintain the lights. But as the Gopalpur Beach Festival is approaching, we have requested the Ganjam collector to give us special permission to buy the required lights. A resolution in this regard has also been passed in the council meeting. We are expecting a lighted beach prior to the festival," said Sahu.

"Criminals and tipplers often resort to damage the park properties. So, we have covered this area under CCTV surveillance since past five days. All the chairs would be repaired before the festival," he said. "We have also initiated steps to reopen the fountain near these chairs shortly."

Gopalpur town president of the BJP Ashok Kumar Sahu has alleged that BJD councillor A.

Janaki Ram of ward No. 2 has been running a licensed foreign liquor off shop on a government land for the past 15 years, 100ft away from the beach.

"We protest against running this off shop and demand its shift from the government land," he said.

However, Ganjam tourist officer Sanatan Behera said the foreign tourist inflow to Gopalpur was increasing. "The number of foreign tourist inflow was 1,183 in 2013, while it was 1,148 in 2014, 957 in 2015 and 1,217 in 2016," he said.