PANAJI: Activists of the Goa Progress Forum (GPF) have questioned as to how MLA Michael Lobo was earlier unaware of the illegality of Birch by Romeo Lane and the manipulation by the Arpora-Nagoa sarpanch and panchayat secretary.
Bernard D’Costa, a citizen activist of the Goa Progress Forum claimed that the Calangute MLA knows everything that is happening in the North Goa belt, when it comes to restaurants, clubs and other eating houses.
“He (Michael Lobo) directly or indirectly owns and controls nearly 50 venues right from Morjim to Candolim. He has financial stakes or investments in hundreds’ of properties in North Goa. How can he now say that he did not know that Romeo Lane Goa was illegal,” D’Costa asked?
Calangute MLA Michael Lobo had alleged that the Arpora-Nagoa village Panchayat sarpanch, Roshan Redkar who is now wanted by the Goa police after the Mapusa sessions court rejected his anticipatory bail application, misused his powers in connection with the Birch fire incident.
Lobo alleged that Redkar and panchayat secretary Ravindra Bagkar issued 33 No Objection Certificates (NOCs) and 14 renovation permissions which do not bear the signature of the panchayat secretary. He has claimed that the Panchayat Secretary is the authorised signatory and not the Sarpanch, yet Lobo alleged that Redkar signed all the documents.
Bernard D’Costa, a citizen activist of the Goa Progress Forum and his team, who have been collating data from various local bodies as well as from other activists in the various localities of North Goa, post the deadly fire incident, said there are about 30 to 40 clubs and restaurants in the North Goa belt which are completely illegal, while the other 260-odd outlets are partially illegal and do not have all the requisite NOCs or permissions. “There are more than 300 illegal venues operating in North Goa,” D’Costa alleged.
Families of the victims of the Goa nightclub fire held a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Sunday (January 4, 2026), demanding a death sentence for the owners of the club where the tragedy occurred.
Raising slogans such as “hang the killers”, the protesters named brothers Saurabh Luthra and Gaurav Luthra, holding them responsible for the blaze that claimed 25 lives.
The families said that justice must be delivered for those who died and those who were injured in the incident.
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