Team Herald
MARGAO: The course for this year’s carnival float parade in Margao will be the traditional route from Holy Spirit Church to the Municipal square. The Shigmotsav parade in Margao will also be conducted on this old route. This decision was taken at the Margao Municipal Council meeting on Friday, when the ruling group of councillors passed a resolution to shift the route from the earlier Fatorda Circle route.
The opposition councillors from Fatorda however objected to the move and did not raise their hands in support, when the resolution was put to a vote. The decision resulted in a fierce verbal battle between former Chairperson Lyndon Pereira and present Chairperson Damodar Shirodkar with councillors from both camps also weighing in on the debate.
Earlier, councillor Camilo Barretto was elected acting president of the Margao Carnival committee; the Shigmo committee president will be decided later. The Chairperson is the ex-officio chairman of both the committees. Margao’s carnival parade is scheduled for February 19, Sunday.
Veteran councillo Sadanand Naik began reminiscing about the sentimental attachment people have with the traditional route while Barretto said people were not happy with the Fatorda route.
The opposition councillors led by Pereira pointed out that it was the traffic police that had asked the parade to be shifted to Fatorda for traffic management reasons. Pereira also added that when the council had recently tried to shift the venue to Margao, a resident had approached the High Court, which had directed MMC to stick to the Fatorda route.
However, the MMC Chairperson, who said he was not aware about the HC directions, felt that having it in Margao should not be an issue as Hospicio Hospital has been shifted to South Goa District Hospital and that was the major problem earlier.
He also said that the roads near the Old Market that have been dug up for sewerage work, would hamper the Fatorda route for the carnival parade.
