The very concept of dance bars should be specifically banned in Goa by enacting law and official circulars, a BJP legislator said Thursday.
Speaking to IANS on the sidelines of a real estate event, Michael Lobo, the Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Calangute where several dance bars have been illegally operating for years, also said the very concept of "dance bars" should be identified and barred from licencing.
"We should issue special circulars to the directorate of panchayats and municipal administration against specifically giving licences to dance bars. In Goa dance bars are not a part of tradition unlike in Mumbai," he said.
Lobo had in the past defied the BJP government's Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar over the issue of licences to a Playboy club in Goa.
Ironically, the legislator's constituency of Calangute has been in the eye of a storm after police raids over the years exposed several dance bars.
Calangute, located 20 km from Panaji, is one of the most popular beach villages in Goa and home to nightclubs and party hot spots.
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The raids have revealed that several women, who have been rescued from these bars, were actually dancers displaced after the 2006 ban on Mumbai's dance bars.
The legislator further said that Goa's licencing system was currently well placed to keep dance bars from functioning openly.
"When annual licences are issued in Goa, they are not for performances or dance. That is why we have not had much of a problem," Lobo said.
The legislator's statement comes at a time when Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has already said no to the dance bar phenomenon in Goa, saying he would not issue excise licences to such businesses.
Goa, regarded as India's party capital, attracts over 2.5 million tourists annually.