Margao Carnival to follow usual route

MARGAO, FEB 16
It’s official. There isn’t going to be any change in the Carnival float parade this year in the Commercial Capital.
Though the district administration, South had resolved to shift the Shigmo and Carnival parades to the Old market area — between the district court building and Ravindra bhavan road – last year, District Magistrate G P Naik confirmed that it is not possible to shift the parade rout to the new location.
If Naik is to be believed, work on the culvert opposite the District and Sessions court building is yet to commence till date, adding that it will take at least a month for the completion of the culvert work, thus ruling out any possibility of shifting the float parade to the old market area.
Incidentally, the district administration headed by G P Naik had last year on the eve of the Narkasura effigy competition had resolved to shift all parades out of the city, not only on the grounds of traffic congestion, but from the security point of view.
Admitting that the administration had taken such a decision last year, Naik, however, expressed helplessness of the administration in implementation of the decision for want of the culvert opposite the district court building.
“Without the culvert work, it is not possible to shift the parade route to the old market area”, Naik said, while blaming the PWD for the inordinate delay in executing work on the culvert.
General secretary of Solid Party – the organizers of the Narkasura effigy competition – Rupesh Mahatme expressed surprise over the decision of the district administration to defer implementation of the shifting the parade route to the city’s outskirts.
“Every year, the administration is thinking of shifting the float parade to the city outskirts on the eve of the Narkasura effigy competition. The issue is then put in the cold storage for the entire year, only to be revived at the time of Narkasura competition”, he added.