MARGAO: People from all corners of Salcete poured into the commercial capital on Sunday to catch a glimpse of the Carnival floats as King Momo with his entourage descended at the Margao Municipal square to read out his decree of fun and frolic for the next two days.
The parade was flagged off by Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado in the absence of Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar. Salcete MLAs Digambar Kamat, Vijai Sardesai and Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco joined Margao Municipal Chairperson Gonzaco Rebello, Carnival Committee Chairman Arthur D’Silva, Councillors and guests as the Fisheries Minister released balloons to mark the inauguration.
Around 79 floats participated in the parade, including 10 floats in the club/institution category, nine in the traditional category, etc.
Floats in the traditional category such as the carpentry float by Purvoz Goemkar, Quepem, traditional dairy farming float by Jua dairy, the float from Curtorim depicting variety of fruits, Konkan railway float celebrating silver jubilee of the Corporation and many others caught the eye of the huge Sunday crowd.
Many participants, including participants in the joker/clown category, claimed that the organisers charged them Rs 1000 as participation fee. They wondered why the organisers had to levy the fee when the government spends lakhs of rupees on the promotion of Carnival.
When contacted, Chairman of the Margao Carnival committee, Arthur D’Silva said the fee was charged by the committee at the direction of the Tourism department. “We have charged the participants only Rs 1000, when the participants were charged a much higher fee in Panjim,” he said.
The police, traffic and the fire services made arrangements for the smooth conduct of the festival.
