CCP Commissioner Agnelo Fernandes resigns from Carnival committee.

 TEAM HERALD

teamherald@herald-goa.com

PANJIM: The abrupt resignation of Corporation of the City of Panaji Commissioner Agnelo Fernandes from Panjim carnival committee and a ‘suggestion’ he has made has ruffled the feathers of other committee members who have questioned the validity of the commissioner’s ‘suggestion.’

Agnelo Fernandes who was the chairman of the committee resigned from the committee and in his letter had ‘suggested’ that Francisco Martins be appointed as president of the committee and be allowed to choose his own committee.

The rest of the members, who continue to be committee members given that the committee was not dissolved, have immediately shot-off a letter to the Chief Secretary questioning the validity of the suggestion and saying that just because the chairman resigns, it does not mean the whole committee has been dissolved.

“It is seen… that the Commissioner has resigned from Panjim Carnival Committee and accordingly asked Director of Tourism to hand over charge to one Francisco Martins… The said committee at no point of time decided to hand over the charge to Francisco Martins as no meeting was held to decide the same,” the letter reads questioning the authority of the Commissioner of recommending one particular individual’s name without consulting the committee.

The Panjim carnival committee, which has already begun work for the celebration of the carnival, says that forming a new committee or even arbitrarily changing the chairman will seriously jeopardise the preparations.

“According to the meeting of the committee held on January 24, the Chairman/Commissioner of CCP had directed the committee to go ahead with the process by observing Codal formalities since the time at our disposal was short and accordingly, we have called for quotations, sought permissions from the concerned authorities on 25^th January 2012 itself and therefore, suddenly forming the committees for the third time is something unheard of, for organisation of Carnival in Goa,” the letter signed by President of the 2012 Panjim Carnival Committee Joaquim Teles and Vice President Napoleon D’Souza and executive members T Aaron S and Nicola Lopes.

According to sources, Taleigao MLA Babush Monserrate is trying to control the carnival and Agnelo’s resignation is according to Babush’s instructions in order to make way for Francisco Martins.

“We’re doing it because we have love for Carnival. If the commissioner wishes to resign, he can do so but you cannot arbitrarily appoint anybody,” Joaquim Teles told Herald.