TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
VASCO: While the religious ceremony at Vasco Saptah concluded on Tuesday, the Saptah fair also came to a premature end for many outstation stall owners, as the ongoing confusion over allocation and allotment of stalls forced them to leave for their native town on Monday evening.
The 24-hour Lord Damodar Bhajani Saptah concluded on Tuesday afternoon with the immersion of sreefal in the sea at Vasco. Revellers danced along the Swatantra Path road from Damodar Temple to the Vasco fishing jetty amidst the chanting of bhajans and later immersed the sreefal.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar visited the Damodar Temple to pay homage to Lord Damodar and after interacting with the Joshi family, visited city-based industrialist and GCCI President Narayan Bandekar.
Meanwhile, the Swatantra Path and Fr Jose Vaz Road wore a deserted look with the prevailing confusion over allotment and location of the stalls.
According to some stall owners, about 30 per cent of the vendors, mostly dealing in garments and artificial jewellery, left with their goods on Monday night as they were not able to erect their stalls at the fair.
Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida later requested the stall owners to erect their stalls at the area marked by Mormugao Municipal Council and start their business.
Besides the stall owners who lost business on the first two days of the Saptah, the city bus owners were also affected as they could not make any trips on Monday night.
“Even the city bus owners lost business due to confusion over allotment and location of the stalls. Many people used to witness religious tableau on the eve of Saptah and we used to ply our buses throughout the night to transport passengers,” Bus Owners Union President Elvis Gonsalves told Herald.
“Earlier, Vasco RTO officials would request us to ply our buses on the eve of Saptah. This year, the RTO did not contact us for the service due to confusion over the Saptah,” he added.
