MAPUSA
Bowing to the wishes of the people of Mapusa, the State government has finally decided to hold the traditional Shigmo parade in Mapusa on a Sunday (March 12).
The Director of Tourism Pravimal Abhishek Polumatla has said that the Shigmo float parade will be held simultaneously at Mapusa and Porvorim centres on March 12.
“In partial modification of minutes of the meeting held on February 27, the date to organise the Shigmo float parade at Mapusa centre has been preponed to March 12 instead of March 13 due to administrative reasons,” Polumatla said in a letter addressed to the Chief Officer of Mapusa Municipal Council.
Earlier, the Tourism Department had tweaked the float parade itinerary and pushed the foat parade in Mapusa to Monday and reserved Sunday for the new centre of Porvorim.
Two days ago, Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant had assured a group of citizens from Mapusa that the parade would be preponed and held on a Sunday as it was held all these years.
The citizens led by former councilor, Tushar Tople, had met the CM and apprised him about the significance of holding the parade on a Sunday in the capital city of North Goa.
Earlier, the citizens had also met State BJP President Sadanand Tanavde and Mapusa MLA Joshua D’Souza and appealed to them to revert the parade on a Sunday instead of a weekday. The resoluteness of the citizens finally paid off.
“Alls well that ends well. We are happy that the government has decided to hold the Shigmo parade on Sunday. For the last 42 years, the Shigmo parade was held on a Sunday in our town. We would like to thank the CM, BJP State President, Mapusa MLA and all those who backed us,” Tople said.
Meanwhile, the Mapusa Shigmotsav Committee has informed that the four-day Shigmo festival in Mapusa will begin on March 11 and the parade will be held on March 12 as per the new programme announced by the Tourism Department.
The committee also said that due to time restrictions, registration of floats for the parade will begin at 1 and the parade will start exactly on time at 4 pm.
