perneM: After Sao Tome and Fontainhas and Fatorda, the police have now refused permission to organise a carnival at Arambol beach on Tuesday without citing any reasons.
Arambol sarpanch Bernard Fernandes said that no reasons were given for denying permission, he said it was because of a carnival floats parade scheduled at Morjim on the same day.
Fernandes said that the village panchayat had granted permission to the local villagers to hold carnival celebrations which were earlier scheduled on Valentine’s Day (February 14) but postponed to February 21 due to some unavoidable circumstances.
Fernandes said, “I spoke to Pernem Police and sought to know reasons why permissions are denied to hold carnival celebrations. Pernem PI Dattaram Raut told me that it was clashing with the carnival floats parade organised at Morjim.”
Shekhar Sharma, who runs a restaurant at Arambol beach said, “Locals along with foreign tourists have been celebrating carnival and organising the parade for more than 20 years. I have been actively involved in it for the last eight years.”
Sharma said, “But, because of some reason, the authorities denied the permission to hold celebrations.”
However, it is learnt that the police had denied permission to hold the carnival celebration on February 14 following a complaint by an NGO, which suspected that it was a rave beach party. Accordingly, it was decided to hold on the official dates of carnival to clear the apprehensions.
The Arambol carnival was attended by a large number of tourists, both domestic and international and it was supporting the economy of the locals.
The local villagers tried talking to Mandrem MLA Jit Arolkar to help them to obtain permissions for the carnival in Arambol, but in vain. They also submitted a representation to Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte, seeking his help and support. But no support came from any authority and political figures, the villagers said.
