TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
CANACONA: While the Shigmotsav float parade is scheduled to take place in Canacona on March 25, there have been growing demands to cancel the celebration and to utilize the earmarked festival funds for victims of several calamities that have hit the taluka this year.
“The government can divert the funds for the welfare of the victims of Ruby Residency building collapse, where six locals from the ST community were killed, the family of fisherwoman Vijaya Pagui who was brutally murdered and raped and several families of the municipal market building fire incident,” said a social worker, Dhiraj Naik Gaunkar.
“It will not be in the best interest to organise the Shigmo float parade, especially when Canacona taluka has been hit by so many tragedies. Instead, it is befitting if the government diverts the funds earmarked for Shigmotsav in a philanthropic manner,” Naik Gaunkar said.
About 42 shop owners and vendors have lost over Rs 85 lakh in the major fire, which completely destroyed the ground floor of the municipal market building at Chaudi. The affected traders have been left high and dry in the absence of any possible compensation due to the election code of conduct.
