TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: As the clamorous two-day Indo-Russian live music festival is set to take place at Baga on January 31 and February 1, BJP’s Calangute MLA Michael Lobo has blown the war bugle against archrival and Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar, insisting that the tourism ministry should not grant permission for the event.
The two-day event has already been cleared by the Single Window Committee and the event proposal has been sent to the tourism ministry for its final consent.
Lobo on Thursday has strongly objected to the conduct of the event in his constituency pointing out that there are novenas taking place in a nearby chapel “and the festival would cause much disturbance.”
Lobo further said that the venue selected for the two-day festival was also not suitable as there were on-going development works in the area.
The Calangute MLA said that it was absurd that the Single Window Committee proceeds to clear events without taking the concerned MLA into confidence in whose area the event is proposed to be held.
“The Single Window System cannot ignore local MLAs in case of event permissions,” said Lobo as the local representatives, he said, are in the know of what’s best and what’s not in the constituency.
He has urged the tourism ministry to refrain from consenting to the event and not to hurt the sentiments of the people of Baga who are preparing for the upcoming feast.
Lobo said that he had been kept in the dark on the event and ironically learnt about it from the organizers themselves only days ago.
