TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Cuncolkars will commemorate the Chieftains Day on July 15 with the old memorial of the 16 Chieftains as the Cuncolim Municipal Council was found wanting in completing the work on the new memorial on time.
With work on the Chieftain’s project taken up under the Goa government’s signature project going haywire over the inordinate delay in making the payments, the contractor and the Chieftains Memorial Trust had no option then to re-install the old memorial in view of the commemoration day scheduled on July 15. Hopes that the special meeting convened by the Cuncolim Municipal Council last month to break the impasse over the payments to the contractor and architect and help expedite work on the project were finally dashed with the contractor re-installing the old memorial which was dismantled to make way for a new one under the signature project.
The Cuncolim Chieftains Memorial Trust in association with Cuncolim Municipal Council observes July 15 as the Chieftains Day. On this day, tributes are paid to the 16 chieftains of Cuncolim who laid down their lives for Swaraj and Swadharma.
In fact, the people of Cuncolim had been demanding with successive governments to include the July 15, 1583 revolt in the school curriculum saying the struggle by the 16 Chieftains was the first ever revolt from Indian soil against foreign rulers.
Incidentally, the Chairman of the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary education, Joe Remedios Rebello has been invited as the chief guest for the function. Rebello had in the past said that any history or historical event to be included in the school curriculum needs to be studied by a panel appointed by the Board.
