This year the festival of Carnival commences on February 13 and will last till February 16. Obviously due to the pandemic and the ongoing coronavirus vaccination programme, there could be no government sponsored carnival float parade which is usually organized in the main cities of the State.
While neighbouring states like Maharashtra and Karnataka restricted the inter-state movements of people during the Christmas-New Year celebrations, Goa welcomed one and all. This resulted in a mad rush of tourists, especially to the beaches.
Though there has been a decline in the number of Covid-19 cases reported in the State, we are still not out of the woods. The Carnival festivities are observed to attract tourists to the state. However these times are different.
It would be desirable for the government to ban all carnival celebrations in the State. No carnival celebrations should be observed in the villages as well. We should not forget those who lost their lives due to the coronavirus in the past few months.
For the benefit of the tourists it would be desirable for the government to make it public that carnival will not be celebrated this year due to the pandemic.
