Permanent venue for Carnival, Shigmo parades in Margao

The resolution implies that the incumbent Council will no longer hold the Carnival and Shigmo parades at the Ravindra Bhavan-Nehru stadium route in the future.

This decision was adopted by the Margao City Fathers at a special meeting of the Council on Friday called to specifically discuss the float parade route and to constitute a committee to celebrate the Carnival and Shigmo festivities.

The meeting chaired by Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar was called to discuss the ensuing Carnival and Shigmo festivities in the city. 

When the matter pertaining to constituting the committee for the two festivals was taken up for discussion, BJP-backed Councilor Sadanand Naik tabled a resolution to authorize the Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar to constitute the committee.

After former Municipal Chairpersons Ganashyam Shirodkar and Lyndon Pereira questioned how come the Chairperson can be authorized to constitute the committee when the matter falls in the domain of the Council, Chairperson Damu said he would take everyone along while constituting the committee to ensure the two festivals are celebrated in a smooth manner.

On the question of the float parade, the Chairperson said the traditional Holy Spirit-MMC square route will be a permanent route for all future Carnival and Shigmo float parades in the city. “The traditional route will be a permanent float parade route. There will be no more resolutions in the future,” he added.

The special meeting also gave its approval to the proposal to give a one-year extension to the 10 data entry operators working in the Civic body.

Meanwhile, the Margao Municipal Council unofficially discussed and deliberated on the revenue position of the Council, after Chairperson Damu Shirodkar pointed out that the monthly salary and wage bill of the Civic body has now touched a whopping Rs 2.5 crore.

Some of the Councilors have called for an audit of the total number of employees and workers employed by the Civic body.