The smoke from the Arpora fire – a basement inferno that claimed 25 lives on December 6, 2025 – has barely cleared, yet the narrative surrounding it is already being professionally sanitised. While judicial luminaries, including a retired Chief Justice of the Allahabad high court from Goa, argue that fresh petitions will resolve the crisis where earlier ones were weak, they are engaging in a diversion. This focus on litigation ignores a fundamental truth: no number of legal moves can compensate for a Village Panchayat that operates with zero transparency and zero accountability.The current discourse is obsessed with the “Delhification of Goa,” blaming arrogant elites for turning the state into a weekend colony of illegal nightclubs. This rhetoric is emotionally resonant but factually hollow. It serves as a shield for local power structures that have maintained a calculated silence on their own role in the Arpora tragedy. If Goa is truly suffering from “Delhification,” it is not because of an external invasion, but because it is repeating the exact patterns of governance failure that destroyed Delhi’s own 200-plus villages decades ago.An optical illusionThe official portal of the Arpora Nagoa Village Panchayat presents a surreal facade of community spirit. It boasts that the body is “deemed as one of the best” and is “constantly striving for the betterment of its citizens”. The site is a revolving door of celebratory news: the inauguration of the Shree Chauranginath Badminton Court, “heartfelt felicitation ceremonies” for students and teachers, and the foundation stone laying for the Sim Boy’s Sports Club.However, beneath this layer of “disinfectant spraying in public areas” and sports club invitations lies a “culture of managed illegality”. The website proudly lists forms for “NOC Water/Electrical Connection” and construction licences. These are the very administrative tools used to breathe life into the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, which was built on prohibited salt pans without fire exits or NOCs. The Panchayat was ignoring the 80% violation rate in local establishments that was only discovered by Town and Country Planning (TCP) raids after the bodies were counted.Also read: Goa’s Arpora Fire: Blaming ‘Delhi-fication’ Won’t Mask Local InactionThe bogeyman of ‘Delhification’Goa’s vocal civil society and its judicial veterans remain remarkably silent on the Village Panchayat’s role in the fire incident. Instead, they externalise the corruption as a “Delhi-style” import. They claim Goa lacks legal provisions for nightclubs, yet these venues flourish under “political protection”. Reality dictates otherwise: Section 47 of the Goa Panchayat Raj Act empowers Village Panchayats (VPs) to issue construction licenses and occupancy certificates, while Sections 69-72 govern trade licenses.The tragedy in Arpora was not a dictat from the capital; it was a local failure to exercise enforcement. When the Calangute Village Panchayat sent show-cause notices to 17 clubs only after the fire, it proved they had prior knowledge of these violations. To blame “outsider arrogance” while the local Sarpanch oversees a regime of “deemed granted” permissions on ecologically sensitive salt pans is the height of hypocrisy.DisciplineIf Goa’s civil society wants to talk about “Delhification,” they should examine the actual history of Delhi’s local governance rather than a caricature. From 1954 to 1990, Delhi’s villages had panchayats, but they were never permitted to take their constitutional duties for granted. When they failed, they were disciplined, suppressed, and superseded. Archival records from the Delhi Gazette provide a razor-sharp contrast to Goa’s current state of impunity:In 1987, the Lt. Governor superseded the Gaon Panchayat of Tigipur because it “persistently made defaults in the performance of duties”.In 1982, the Gaon Panchayat of Dhulsiras was declared “incompetent and unable to perform the duties imposed on it” and dissolved.In 1974 alone, a wave of supersessions hit Goyala Khurd, Sadatpur Gujran, Hasanpur, and Daryapur Kalan.The grounds for these actions were specific: failure to protect property, “illegal leasing,” and being “rendered incompetent to perform duties imposed by law”. Merely suspending officials or taking action against the Sarpanch is not a complete overhaul in the process that can ensure compliance to prevent such frauds in public policy processes. Unless and until the Panchayats are made more accountable and transparent about their work, the ground realities will remain far away from a foolproof mechanism of administration in Goan villages. A warning tooToday, the ground reality of Delhi’s villages is a cautionary tale. Between 1990 and 2026, unchallenged by a proactive civil society, these villages were hollowed out by caste, capital, and free and informal market forces. Places like Hauz Khas, Shahpur Jat, Saidulajabad and more – once agrarian and countrified – have became “pub hubs” through cheap leases and rule violations, eventually destroying the social fabric of the local communities and destroying structural heritage. Goa is currently hurtling down this same path.If we truly wish to save Goa, its civil society must stop protecting local bodies that have failed their mandate. The tools for accountability already exist:Gram Manchitra: The Ministry of Panchayati Raj mandates the use of this GIS portal for land-use zoning and participatory planning. Yet, no Goa panchayat used it to zone out salt-pan clubs.Section 72-A of the 2025 Amendment: This allows for the immediate sealing of unlicensed premises.Audit NOCs: Mandatory audits of utility NOCs via e-Gram Swaraj would prevent the “culture of managed illegality”.Instead of demanding “fresh petitions,” the demand must be for the Lt. Governor of Goa to act against the inactions of the Arpora Panchayat and all other defaulting bodies.True “Delhification” is not an invasion; it is a lesson in accountability. Goa must learn from Delhi’s history of disciplining local rot before it repeats Delhi’s eventual decay. The time for “weak petitions” and blaming “outsiders” is over; the time for disciplining the local Sarpanch is now.Paras Tyagi is president of the Centre for Youth Culture Law and Environment.