Team Herald
PANJIM: Congress party has petitioned Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar seeking to know the steps initiated by the government to recover pending dues from organisers of electronic dance music (EDM) festivals, as ordered by the High Court.
“I would kindly request you to inform me in writing within eight days the necessary steps taken by the government or the ways by which government intends to recover the pending dues, which run into crores of rupees, from the EDM festival organisers,” Congress General Secretary Trajano D’Mello said in his letter.
D’Mello pointed out that the High Court, in a PIL filed by him, while disposing off the matter on February 27, 2017, asked the State authorities to take expeditious steps to recover the pending dues.
“The fact is that the EDM organisers owe crores of rupees, in spite of the outstanding dues permissions were being granted which forced me to file a writ petition in December 2015. The court has directed the State government to recover the dues as quickly as possible,” the Congress leader said.
Congress also rubbished the contention of Tourism Minister Manohar (Babu) Azgaonkar, who said that EDMs bring in revenue. “The utterances of the Tourism Minister to bring back EDM festivals in the State, particularly the earlier organizers, to increase revenue of the State, has betrayed his ignorance,” D’Mello said.
D’Mello challenged the Tourism Minister to place before the people the amount of revenue earned in the form of various taxes from the festival organisers.
