Fancy a ride on the Ferris wheel or do you want to tuck into that delicious chole-bhature? Come
enjoy it all at the Mary Immaculate Conception of the Holy Spirit Church in
Margao. This fest has history. This ten days fest is organised on either side
of the road near the KTC bus stand, Margao between the 8th and the 17th of this
month. The fair consists of more than 150 stalls with a variety of goods and
services from across the country. There are a few recreational stalls with some
adventurous games like the giant wheel, break dance ride and toy train, whereas
fast food, affordable clothes and foot-ware, home decors and economic furniture
stalls are also attracting the crowd on a major scale.
Ranjeet Borkar, member secretary of SGPDA
said, “The fair used to be set up in front of the Holy Spirit church itself,
but due to traffic congestion it was shifted to this ground. This is the
tradition of the church and we are following it for a long time. After two
years, we have got a chance to bring this fair and celebrate the feast
together, so the Margao Municipal Cooperation along with the Fatorda Police and
the Margao traffic cell is helping us in conducting this successfully”. The
SGPDA committee is responsible for the stalls set up on the SGPDA ground and
the Margao municipal corporation is responsible for the other side of the road.
MMC is also responsible to collect the trade tax, maintain
cleanliness and all the COVID-19 protocols for the entire area. Agnelo A
Fernandes, the Chief Officer of MMC said, “We have 226 municipality employees
and 300 daily wage and quarter wage workers, whose 80% and 100% salaries are
given from the collections of the municipality respectively. Only 10 officers
are from the common cadre whose salaries are completely taken care of by the
state government. In such a case, these fairs are helpful, since it helps in
raising the income of the municipality. We have kept an aim of collecting Rs 10
lakhs from the stalls which are set up there. It’s been two years that we are
struggling to pay our own employees, thus the existence of the local bodies are
at risk. The monthly collection of last month was around Rs1.5 crore , whereas
during the peak months, i.e. in April, May and June it reaches to three to four
crores”. He went on to say the inclusion of gst has cancelled the Octroi
system, i.e. due to GST, the tax on petrol/litre which local bodies received
was cancelled in the year 2013, due to which there was the financial crisis
from 2017 onwards. The pandemic had worsened the situation, so they had
requested the Goa state government to grant octroi for the proper functioning
of the municipal corporation.
Daksh P Raikar, a resident of Margao said, “We have been waiting
for this fest for a while. Finally the time has come and the opportunity is
right in front of us. This is for the first time that we have adventure games
for the fest here”. John Masceranas, a resident of Borda said, “ I have been
enjoying the varieties in the food items here. We have food from across the
country, ranging from Mumbai special Pav bhaji to Udupi Dosa to Delhi
Chole-Bhaotre”. Grace Almeda said, “The market has a variety of cloth stalls
which are very affordable and can be used on a regular basis. I was even
surprised to see people wearing masks all the time”. There were people who
criticised the arrangements made.
Mario Fernandes, resident of Cuncolim said, “I came here with a
lot of hope that it would be a safer space for me to celebrate and enjoy, but
here it is not being followed which is a disgrace. Nobody is maintaining social
distance and using sanitizers”.
Kapil Nayak, Police Inspector of Fatorda police station said,
“We have deployed 8-10 police constables over there, who ensure the maintenance
of peace and COVID-19 protocols in the area. We also take regular rounds.
Currently, we are issuing challans to those not wearing masks but apart from
that we can’t do anything else”.
The area is crowded. Gautam A Salunke, Police Inspector RTO
Margao said, “Considering the situation we have deployed four traffic police in
the area to regulate the traffic. We already have traffic signals which make
the job easy for the officials, the only problem is with the parking. We are
trying to use one of the sides of the interior roads for parking. Earlier the
stalls were set up on the footpaths, which we have successfully pushed onto the
grounds. Thankfully we have not reported a single accident case in the area.
The situation is under control”.
The stalls put up are very diverse. Bhola Prasad, a game
operator said, “ After two years, this is the first time I have stepped out of
my house to earn my livelihood. It is for the first time I come to Goa and I
feel welcome since they are very enthusiastic and participate in the activity
actively”. Santosh Chavan, a tattoo artist said, “ I have been doing this work
only during the feast, I travel throughout the country to make tattoos and
earn. Lockdown wasn’t a problem for me because I have my farm in Maharashtra,
and I did farming with my father there”.
Perhaps
this is an option that can be considered by fathers and mothers to calm down
noisy children.
