VASCO
Cortalim MLA Anton Vas on Tuesday evening chaired a joint meeting with religious heads and various government officials to coordinate and review arrangements for the Novena and Feast of St Joseph Vaz on January 16, 2023.
Those present at the meeting included Rector of St Joseph Vaz sanctuary Fr Manuel Dias, Sancoale Parish Priest Fr Kennet Teles, Dy Collector Ravishekar Nippanikar, Mormugao DySP Salim Shaikh, Verna PI Diago Gracias, Traffic PI Shailesh Narvekar, Sancoale Sarpanch Rohini Toraskar, officials of the PWD, Fire and Health and some parishioners.
Later speaking to reporters, Vas said the purpose of the meeting was to coordinate all arrangements in the view of the Novena and Feast of St Joseph Vaz at Sancoale.
"We received a letter from the Sancoale Parish Priest Fr Kennet Teles and Rector of St Joseph Vaz Sanctuary Fr Manuel Dias regarding the Novena and feast of St Joseph Vaz. We want to have proper arrangements and we invited officials of all government departments so that we can update them on the requirements of the celebration,” said Vas.
Rector of St Joseph Vaz Sanctuary Fr Manuel Dias said the Novena will take place from January 7 to January 15, while the Feast will be celebrated on January 16.
"We always write a lot of letters to government officials and this is the first such meeting convened by an MLA. This will ensure that everyone knows who is doing what and the celebration is well organised. We expect good support from government agencies," said Dias.
Mormugao DySP Salim Shaikh said there would be proper traffic arrangements and deployment of additional staff during the Novena and Feast.
"We will ensure minimum inconvenience to devotees arriving here. We will also have additional staff as per the timing of the Novena and will ensure that the entire celebration starting from the Novena to the Feast is carried out peacefully," said DySP Shaikh.
Vasco Traffic PI Shailesh Narvekar said additional staff will be deployed from the entire period from January 7 to 16.
"They have already identified a parking lot and we will get the proper marking and illumination done there, besides additional staff to regulate traffic movement. We will have more staff from the other Traffic Cells on Sundays when there could be a larger number of people arriving for Novena," said PI Narvekar.
