Sunburn weathers storm, Rs 1 lakh surety paid

Sunburn weathers storm, Rs 1 lakh surety paid
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Panaji: Even as the Calangute police lodged a complaint against the organizers of the Sunburn festival at Candolim for playing loud music, the government granted fresh conditional permission to the organizers to carry on with the beach music festival after they paid a surety of Rs 1 lakh.
Chief secretary JP Singh said, “The organizers have made a petition to the collector and they have given a guarantee of Rs 1 lakh and an undertaking that they will not violate the sound levels. As their sound levels on the second day were within the norms, the deputy collector gave them permission to continue the festival. This is conditional. Moreover, the Goa State Pollution Control Board will monitor the sound levels.”
When asked if this is an exception and if others who violate the Noise Pollution Act will be allowed to carry on operations by giving a guarantee amount, Singh said, “This can’t become a trend.”
The 3-day festival which started on Saturday was stopped by the Calangute police on Sunday after Mapusa sub divisional magistrate issued an order cancelling its conditional NOC.
Sources said that due to political pressure from a ruling MLA, the government asked the organizers to apply again for permission. They were then asked to give a surety of Rs 1 lakh and an undertaking that they would strictly abide by the law and if it is violated, penal action would be taken against them, besides them having to forfeit the Rs 1 lakh.
Mapusa SDM Mahesh Khorjuenkar said, “It is a government decision to give fresh permission as the organizers have applied again on Monday. We have given permission with certain conditions.”
Reacting to the conditional permission granted by the government, former additional advocate general Vilas Thali told TOI that the guarantee should not have been accepted at all. “The decision is discriminatory,” he said.
Environmentalist Claude Alvares said the decision of granting permission after taking a guarantee of Rs 1 lakh is “wrong and illegal”. “Goa Foundation will approach the court and see that nobody is allowed to have parties like this in the future,” he said.
Pointing to the amount being “hardly anything” for the organizers to shell out, he said, “Considering the amount, every organizer will be willing to give such a guarantee to organize such parties.”
The police in their complaint said that on December 27, between 12.45pm and 10pm, the organizers of the festival played music ranging from 67.2db to 89.3db. The permitted decibel level is up to 55db. A case had accordingly been registered against the organizer Lyndon Alves from Dona Paula under section 3 and 4 of the Noise Pollution Act.
When contacted, Calangute MLA Agnelo Fernandes said, “I was fighting to get permissions for Sunburn. Because of this, 48 more shacks have got permission to play music. If you don’t have such parties and music for Christmas, then what is the fun of being in Goa? For the sake of tourism, people need to bear some music that anyway stops by 10pm. Everyone in Calangute and Candolim is happy except people who complain perenially.”

December 30, 2008, The Times of India, Goa Edition

SUNBURN 2008 Sun sets early on fest as organizers goof up

SUNBURN 2008
Sun sets early on fest as organizers goof up
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Panaji: The three-day Sunburn 2008 beach festival that had started on Saturday with conditional permission at Candolim, was stopped by the Calangute police after Mapusa sub-divisional magistrate issued an order cancelling the conditional NOC issued to the organizers.
The SDM in his order to the police said that the Goa Pollution Control Board in its report to him had clearly stated that the organizers had violated the sound decibel level and since it was in violation of the conditional NOC, the premission stands cancelled.
SP (North) Bosco George, confirming that the festival has been stopped said, “Acting on the SDMs order we stopped the festival between 7 and 7.30 pm on Sunday.”
Mapusa SDM Mahesh Khorjuenkar said, “Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) submitted a report on Sunday in which they have stated that the organizers have failed to comply with permissible sound levels and therefore the North Goa collector issued directions to me to ask the police to take action.”
Sources said that GSPCB in its report has said that the organizers were exceeding the music limit and playing at 83 sound decibels on Saturday.
While the permission granted by the SDM was for 55 decibels, the GSPCB maintained that the music could be played upto 65 decibels in Calangute and Candolim as it is a commercial area and this can be extended up to 75 decibels. However, even that was violated.
While in the morning the music remained at 60 decibels, by 3.30 pm the decibel level peaked to 83 near the entrance of the festival which was much above the permissible level.
Meanwhile, highly placed sources said that Central intelligence agencies having examined the arrangements made by the organizers have opined to the Goa police that it is not a secure arrangement, especially from the beach side to prevent any entry of any terror attacks.
While issuing the conditional NOC to the organizers, the SDM and the police had clearly stated that they would have to comply with 22 conditions and if any condition was violated then the order issuing the conditional NOC will be deemed to be revoked.
Meanwhile, villagers said that soon after the cops left, music could be heard.
However, police personnel intervened once again to stop the festival.

December 27, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition

Sunburn 2008 gets green signal

THE PARTY IS ON
Sunburn 2008 gets green signal
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Panaji: Despite the government declaring that “open” beach festivals are banned, the organizers of the Sunburn 2008 music beach festival managed to get permission to hold the festival at Candolim beach by enclosing the premises with metal sheets.
“The SP (north) and SP (traffic) have both issued a conditional NOC and if any condition is breached, the NOC will be cancelled,” said SP (intelligence) Atmaram Deshpande.
Highly placed sources said that there was immense pressure on the organizers to issue the NOC, due to which the police issued a conditional NOC after the organizers promised to comply with several directions. Sources revealed that the NOC will hold only if the organizers comply with the condition of having armed private guards in uniform, traffic marshals to man vehicles, security men in plain clothes, hand metal detectors, frame metal detectors, sniffer dogs and the entire area enclosed with metal sheets. It is also said that no minor should be allowed and everyone’s I-cards should be checked. “There are about 22 conditions the organizers have to comply with,” sources said
“The NOC also states that there should be no parking in the lane and a separate parking provision should be made. Penal action will be initiated in case the organizers fail to comply with the undertaking they have given us,” said police sources. The police have also asked the organizers to stop all activity by 10 pm.
Incidentally, even when the police were refusing to grant an NOC, Manuj Agarwal, chief operating officer of Percept D’- Mark had declared that the festival is on. “They have been given permission on the technical ground that the festival is going to be held on private property behind the sand dunes at Candolim and not on the beach,” said sources in the government.
The Sunburn festival, dedicated to the promotion of peace and global harmony, aims to attract more than 3000 people and will be held from December 27 to December 29. More than 35 music artists from around the
world will play across 4 stages on the beach, and will have food stalls, fire jugglers, stilt walkers, a flea market and will also promote environmental awareness and education.
Deputy Collector (Mapusa) MV Khorjuenkar said, “Earlier the report was that the festival was on the beach, but as they said that it is being held on private property, the police verified it and gave a report to us that the music permission should be granted as the organizers have given an undertaking.”
“We discussed the matter with the collector and after examining the case granted permission as the festival doesn’t violate the government order banning open beach parties,” he added.

December 27, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition