ANOTHER CHAOS: The recently held Aqua Fish Festival at the Open Field Ground in Campal had caused massive traffic jams on DB Road.
PANAJI
The highly popular Lokotsav festival is set to begin on Friday and run for the next 10 days, attracting thousands of visitors. Residents in the normally quiet Campal heritage area and along DB Marg are bracing for the usual chaos of blocked roads and noise.
For several years, residents have been unsuccessfully agitating to convince the authorities to shift the festival elsewhere. Now they appear resigned to their fate.
As Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude claimed on Tuesday, they have refrained from making any representation about the inconvenience that hosting the festival at Kala Academy’s Darya Sangam, Campal, for ten days from January 17 will cause to their daily lives.
A group of residents, mostly senior citizens who in past years had publicly voiced their protests, told The Goan that they are tired of their appeals to have the festival relocated to other venues falling on deaf ears.
Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) president, Jack Sukhija, who has his family home in Campal near the Francisco Luis Gomes garden, said holding such festivals at these venues is “mindless torture” inflicted on users of the DB road and people living in the vicinity.
Sukhija stated that he does not reside in his family home there but added that it is very clear that the DB ground and the Parade Ground do not have the capacity to hold festivals that attract large crowds.
“The entire DB road from Kala Academy onwards witnesses massive traffic jams due to such festivals,” Sukhija said, adding that the government’s obstinate stance of insisting on this venue when the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium is a far better alternative with better parking and road access is inexplicable.
On Tuesday, Gaude, while responding to media queries about the inconvenience caused to nearby residents due to the festival, said the government has not received any complaints about the hardships faced by Campal residents.
Gaude added that parking arrangements are being made to ease traffic movement, while admitting that everyone may face some problems.
“The government is here to resolve problems and not to close down any festival. Inconveniences will be resolved,” he said while announcing that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will inaugurate the 10-day festival at 6 pm on Thursday.
