Sunburn has applied to the administrator of North Goa comunidades for permission to use Anjuna Comunidade land for their annual party on survey No 206/1 in Anjuna, Vagator.
Members of the Anjuna Comunidade are awaiting judgment on Writ Petition (WP) 2728 of 2022, and social media is rife with rumours that the festival is going to be organised near the Mopa international airport.
It has been ascertained that the Sunburn Festival has, through Spacebound Labs Pvt Ltd, applied for permission to host the event in Vagator and that the judgment of the High Court of Bombay at Goa was listed on the HC Board for disposal last week.
“We have been informed that Spacebound Labs Pvt Ltd has applied to the administrator of North Goa comunidades for permission to host the Sunburn Festival on our land in Vagator, even though it should have come to us,” stated a gaunkar from Anjuna.
Some members of the Anjuna Comunidade, along with Fenton D’Souza, approached the High Court of Bombay at Goa through WP 2728 of 2022, claiming, among other things, the following:
“Comunidade must have liberty to determine at what rate their lands need to be leased particularly for commercial purposes. Denial of this right is breach of their proprietary right as well as a breach of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.”
The petitioner stated in the WP that the amount that was charged for Sunburn is far less than what is fixed by the comunidade in its extraordinary general body meeting held on 13/11/2022 and not as per Article 330 of the Code of Comunidades.
It is for the comunidade to decide on leasing of its land and the rent that is to be charged,” states the WP.
The bone of contention is that the Anjuna Comunidade believes it is their prerogative to charge the rent, while the administrator of comunidades, a government appointee, thinks that the price to be charged should be based on the rent mentioned in the office memorandum dated 15/12/2021 guidelines.
Organisers of Sunburn have been feeling the ire of many locals on account of the traffic chaos, noise pollution and drug-related deaths during the festival.
“The rent that is decided by the general assembly should be binding according to the Code of Comunidades. The general body decided to charge the Sunburn Festival Rs 75 lakhs, but they were told to pay Rs 1,41,856,” claims a member of the Anjuna Comunidade.
“The comunidade will not be against Sunburn if they pay us our dues instead of trying to pay all and sundry bribes and giving us peanuts. The money that the comunidade gets is shared amongst all gaunkars,” thinks an aggrieved gaunkar.
“We hope the high court understands our point and the organisers of Sunburn realise that they will be much better off if they pay us our legitimate dues and stop paying bribes to people who have nothing to do with our land,” claims another gaunkar from Anjuna.
Organisers of Sunburn have been feeling the ire of many locals on account of the traffic chaos, noise pollution and drug-related deaths during the festival.
“I am not sure whether the Sunburn organisers are using social media or the latter are falling on the formers’ laps for nothing, but the news of Sunburn being held near Mopa international airport is nothing short of lies,” admitted a source in the CMO.
“It could be their ploy to create confusion and try to hurriedly get permission at the last minute. It has been done before, and this could be the continuation,” added the source.
Passion for the Sunburn Festival has all along been ignited by rumours until the chaos starts surfacing in Vagator and everyone gets into the party mood. Then, the rush for freebies begins.