MARGAO
The South Goa district administration has resolved to organize the Carnival float parade in the commercial capital on February 14 in a grand manner by implementing the SOP in place.
Margao Municipal Council Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes has been appointed as the Chairman of the Margao Carnival celebration committee. The Carnival parade will be held on the district court building-Ravindra Bhavan, circle stretch and will culminate at the Borkar superstores, informed Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes.
This was decided at a high-level meeting held in the South Goa District Collectorate chaired by newly-posted Collector, Ruchika Katyal, IAS.
The meeting was attended by representatives of various government agencies, including PWD, Electricity, Police etc.
To a question on how the authorities will plan to host the carnival parade in the city when there’s no end to Covid cases, the MMC Chief Officer said that the agencies will meet in the next few days to put a mechanism in place to ensure that the SOP in place is implemented along the parade route.
“The implementation of the Covid-19 pandemic SOP will be looked after by the Health Department and all the agencies. Whatever that is required to be done will be put in place by the agencies on the day of the parade,” the Chief Officer stated.
He pointed out that the agencies will meet again to put a mechanism in place how to go about the carnival parade taking into account the Covid pandemic and the SOP.
Last year, the Margao carnival festivities were marked by a row over the parade route, with the government and the Margao municipality proposing to hold the parade on the old Holy Spirit square-Margao Municipal square route, before the district authorities decided to hold the event on the district court-Ravindra Bhavan route after the matter landed in the High Court.
