Suspect them of scouting for land to hold Sunburn
Citizens confront representatives of BookMyShow for their presence at the Verna Industrial claiming the officials surveyed the SEZ land with IDC officials.
Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Citizens and social activists on Wednesday confronted representatives of BookMyShow at the Verna Industrial estate, suspecting their presence along with IDC officials to scout for land to hold the Sunburn music festival on the Verna plateau.
Social activists Arvind D’Costa, Zarinha Da Cunha, Edwin Pinto, besides GPCC Chief Amit Patkar, Congress leader from Nuvem Everson Vales and others descended on the Verna plateau after being alerted that Sunburn officials are expected to conduct survey of the IDC area, on the plateau where the government had acquired land for the scrapped Special Economic Zones (SEZ).
After questioning, the representatives pointed out that they represent BookMyShow and their presence is not in connection with the Sunburn music festival. The citizens posed a volley of questions to one Amit Jadhav, who claimed himself as the surveyor with BookMyShow, insisting that his brief was to survey the land at the Verna IDC. He, however, declined to unveil the purpose of conducting the survey, with citizens demanding to know whether BookMyShow has now ventured into industrial activity from event management.
The representative declined to outline the purpose of the survey other than insisting that he has been drafted from Mumbai office to conduct the survey.
Arvind D’Costa wondered what BookMyShow had to do at the IDC land when they are into booking of tickets for events. “We strongly believe that this is nothing but shifting the junk from North to South Goa and destroying the peace and tranquility in South. They want to shift the drug menace from North to South”, he said
Activist Zarinha Da Cunha warned that the patience of the people of Goa is running out, asserting that Goa will not tolerate and take things lying down. “People of South Goa have in one voice opposed Sunburn festival in the district. The government should listen to the voice of the people. We don’t want social degradation. Such festivals will make our youth vulnerable to these evil things. We don’t want drugs and prostitution in the IDC”, she asserted.
Pointing out that Goans enjoy the Christmas season with family get-togethers and local functions, Zarinha demanded to know the purpose of holding the Sunburn festival during Christmas festivities when the locals are busy with Christmas activities.
GPCC Chief Amit Patkar said representatives of BookMyShow have inspected the Verna IDC plateau near the land acquired for SEZ with officials of the Verna IDC.
“When the citizens confronted the representative Amit Jadhav, he insisted their presence to a survey, which he did not elaborate. This is a big conspiracy and attempt to get back door entry”, he said.
Patkar demanded that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte take steps to file FIR against the organizers of the festival instead of telling the people to lodge FIRs against the event and the organizers.
