Mapusa civic chairperson holds meet with sarvajanik Ganeshutsav mandals

Mapusa: Chairperson of Mapusa Municipal Council Ryan Braganza said that the sarvajanik Ganeshutsav mandals in Mapusa have decided to have one-and-a-half day celebration of Ganesh festival.

“We will be holding a joint meeting again to finalise arrangements as regards immersion of idols and by August 13-14 an advisory will be issued for Ganesh celebration,” said Braganza, while speaking to the media on Thursday.  

The Mapusa Municipal Council had convened a joint meeting of all sarvajanik Ganeshutsav mandal committees, besides local NGO to deliberate on the forthcoming festival celebration and immersion arrangements in the town.

The meeting was presided over by civic chairperson Ryan Braganza along with chief officer Kabir Shirgaonkar and it was attended by committee members of sarvajanik mandals, councillors, besides Narayan Ratwad, Pravin Asolkar, Sanjay Barde, Chandrakant Pandit and others.

During the meeting, the chairperson appealed to the mandals to restrict Ganesh celebration in view of government orders.

Immersion time slots for each ward to avoid crowding were also suggested.  

Interacting with media, Braganza said that “we have received the SOP from the government to restrict the annual celebration; accordingly, we called a joint meeting of sarvajanik Ganesh mandals to appeal to them to restrict the celebration and all committees have decided to have one-and-a-half day celebration in Mapusa.”

He said that “there will be another meeting on August 11 to finalise the plan for immersion of idols and then by August 13-14 we will be issuing the advisory.”

Commenting on matoli bazaar in Mapusa, Braganza said that “we will be appealing to all MLAs of the taluka to make arrangements of matoli items in their constituencies so that the flow of people is less in Mapusa.”

Meanwhile, due to COVID pandemic, the sarvajanik Ganeshutsav near the Pilerne panchayat will be organised for only one-and-a-half day instead of eleven days.

President of the sarvajanik Ganeshutsav Sandeep Bandodkar told this daily that “all the programmes have been cancelled; we used to have dramas, singing and dance competitions. The villagers are asked not to come at the mandal due to the pandemic, while only 20 members will be

allowed.”