Gram sabha says firm ‘No’ to Sunburn in Loutolim

Hands went up at the packed hall, the venue of the Loutolim gram sabha on Sunday opposing Sunburn festival at Loutolim-Verna plateau.

Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar

MARGAO
Opposition to the controversial Sunburn music festival reverberated at the Loutolim gram sabha on Sunday with agitated members unanimously saying a firm no to the festival at the Loutolim-Verna plateau.

The unanimous resolution assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the survey conducted by representatives of BookMyShow on the Loutolim-Verna plateau last month, with villagers suspecting that the survey was part of the plan to shift Sunburn to South Goa this year.

Hands went up at the packed hall, the venue of the extra ordinary gram sabha meeting chaired by Sarpanch Sanfrancisco Fernandes, as gram sabha members in one voice opposed the festival from being held on the Loutolim-Verna plateau or anywhere in the State of Goa.

Sarpanch Sanfrancisco Fernandes told the members that the Loutolim village panchayat has not received any proposal seeking permission from Sunburn to hold the festival at the Loutolim plateau. He was replying to a gram sabha member, who was referring to the notice of the extra ordinary gram sabha meeting published in the local media. When he was questioned by another gram sabha member why the panchayat called for an extra ordinary gram sabha meeting instead of the ordinary gram sabha due this month, Sarpanch Sanfrancisco maintained that the panchayat called for the extra ordinary gram sabha based on a representation received from gram sabha members. In fact, he point blank told the gram sabha members that he has no objection if the members do not want the meeting.

Gram sabha member Xavier Fernandes later explained to the members that he and other gram sabha members have requisitioned the extra ordinary gram sabha following a survey conducted by representatives of BookMyShow on the Loutolim-Verna plateau. “We decided to requisition the extra ordinary gram sabha of the panchayat to send a message loud and clear to the government as well as Sunburn and BookMyShow that the Loutolim gram sabha and the villagers are strongly opposed to plans to hold Sunburn in our backyard,” he said.

Gram sabha members later in one voice opposed Sunburn on the Loutolim-Verna plateau as part of attempts to shift the festival to South Goa.

Villagers of Loutolim along with activists and GPCC chief Amit Patkar, general secretary Everson Vales and others had last month confronted representatives of BookMyShow for conducting survey of the Loutolim-Verna plateau on the land acquired by the Goa Industrial Development Corporation.

The villagers had then suspected that the BookMyShow representatives had surveyed the IDC land, specially the sprawling land acquired for the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) falling under the jurisdiction of the Loutolim village panchayat.