MAPUSA
While the Shree Dev Bodgeshwar temple committee along with the Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) have drawn up a plan to hold the popular Bodgeshwar zatra in an “organised” and “planned” manner, a deposit of Rs 5000 will be taken from stall owners to take care of garbage management at the site during the seven-day festival.
The zatra will begin from January 5, 2023.
While parking arrangements have been done in at least three different spots to ensure proper manoeuvring of vehicles, arrangements have also been made to set up temporary outposts of electricity, police, traffic police and the municipality at the site.
“The temple committee along with the civic body and the other government departments have met and discussed in order to hold an organised and planned zatra. It will be a people-friendly zatra to ensure that every one enjoys the festival by making proper arrangements and putting systems in place,” said Mapusa MLA, Joshua D’Souza, after chairing a meeting with the temple committee and officials of the municipality and various other government departments.
Mapusa Chairperson, Shubanghi Vaigankar, Vice-Chairperson, Chandrashekar Benkar, Temple committee President, Anand Bhaidkar and other officials were also present.
Speaking further, D’Souza said that Bodgeshwar zatra was one of the most popular zatras in Goa and therefore people from various other parts of the State come to Mapusa for the zatra.
“We will try to provide good facilities to everyone. We will ensure that all the roads are openly available for smooth flow of traffic so that nobody is inconvenienced while travelling on the roads,” he said.
The Shree Dev Bodgeshwar temple committee, President, Anand Bhaidkar informed that all arrangements have been made to hold the pujas offered by different groups on different days.
He said plans have been drawn to set up a little over 800 stalls besides a food court at the site.
“We want to hold an organized zatra. It will also be a plastic free festival,” Bhaidkar said.
The secretary of the temple committee informed that a deposit amount of Rs 5000 has been taken from big stall owners to manage garbage during the festival. He said the deposit was not refundable and will be utilised for maintenance and disposal of garbage during the festival.
