By Dominick Rodrigues
Panjim: 2022 was ushered in Goa with pomp and revelry as tourists poured in from different parts of India and some foreign countries to participate in a somewhat controlled festive atmosphere.
While COVID-19 continued to be a damper for the second consecutive year, Christmas and New Year celebrations witnessed a desperation among the people to get out of their homes to go for religious rituals and get-togethers while still keeping within protective SOPs issued by the Government including wearing masks, safe distancing and washing hands.
While last year had witnessed a virtually non-existent Christmas celebration due to the fear of Covid-19, this year saw the usual Christmas spirit on display amidst lights and music.
Parish youth and musicians moved on the streets serenading families with Christmas carols, while families visited their relatives and friends to exchange home-made Christmas sweets and goodies.
Engineer Mark Floyd celebrated his 23rd birthday on December 30 at the famed Calangute Beach’s popular +Curries+ Restaurant with his 30 student friends in a private party and the floor rocking with line dancing groups led by his DJ cousin Jerell Brooke to selected music.
The tourist crowds were prominent in their numbers at night as they thronged the riverside of the Mandovi River in the Goa capital of Panjim. A sprinkle of foreign tourists could be seen among the mostly flashily-dressed tourists who were eager to enter the many Casinos dotting the Panjim landscape – all lit up in glittering lights — in their bid to outdo Lady Luck on the poker, roulette and other gaming tables.
Meanwhile, the popular Sunburn EDM (Electronic Dance Music) festival – the largest EDM music festival in Asia — 2021 kicked off to a rocking start on December 27 for three days, besides also witnessing many after-festival parties featuring several electronic music stars.
Goa Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar said that the Government had not given the Sunburn organizers permission to hold its usual huge annual show and that they (Percept Live) held a small event on private property in Small Vagator.
However, the over 60 international and local performers were allowed in the show after confirming that they had the mandatory Covid-19 double vaccination. They included Armin van Buuren, Vini Vici, Infected Mushroom, NUCLEYA, Deborah de Luca and KSHMR.
Meanwhile, even as the emergence of the Omicron variant created a scare, the Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant ruled out imposing night curfew in the State during the festive and tourist season, after holding a Goa Task Force meeting in this regard.
Sadbhav – an interfaith initiative for fostering communal harmony – of the Society of Pilar organized a Christmas celebration including members of different faith communities on December 23, where the chief guest Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai gave the keynote address.
Describing Christmas itself as a +Sadbhav+, the Governor said that for all humanity, love, joy, peace and happiness was the message proclaimed at the birth of Jesus that is followed in India as well.
New Year is the time for making resolutions and everyone seems to be hoping to make the best of the year 2022 in beating the pandemic and making the world a better place to live in for all.
Getting rid of extra pounds gained during the pandemic lockdown seems to be the New Year resolution of obese people as one Ayurvedic doctor found out. As many as 86 persons registered for weight loss programme in one day those rushing for this programme included was a Bollywood personality.
Meanwhile, political parties seemed to have made their resolutions in the New Year 2022 – to ensure that their preparations for the 2022 Goa Legislative Assembly elections result in a win for them and their political parties.
The Congress is targeting 20 Goa Legislative Assembly seats and began its door-to-door campaign on December 27, 2021.
North Goa District Congress Committee President Vijay Bhike said this campaign would highlight how the BJP government had “failed and made people suffer, middle class faced hardship due to rising prices of commodities, youths for jobs and ministers and MLAs involved in over Rs 100 crores job scam.”
Trinamool Congress chief Mamta Banerjee had declared in Panjim that the +the BJP’s sun will set in Goa+. The TMC has formed an alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the two parties are highlighting their alliance with the clarion call for “Goemchi Navi Sakal” (Goa’s New Morning).
Describing Goa as a +historical place that created history,+ Banerjee highlighted the similarities shared by both Bengal and Goa in their liking for football, fish, folks songs, the sea etc.
Earlier, on December 22, AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced to media here in Panjim the +guarantee+ of the first “corruption-free” Goa government if his party wins the state elections.
He said the AAP is the first political party in the last 75 years to announce the word +guarantee+ in its campaign and that he had already announced five guarantees to Goans.
The Aam Aadmi Party Goa Convenor Rahul Mhambre criticized the State BJP and its Chief Minister Sawant for the high water bills of the local population – following the Government announcing in August 2021 about +free water+ upto 16,000 litres to Goans in the State.
Mhambre had led a gherao in October last year of the Mapusa PWD when residents including small families were faced with astronomical bills. “One consumer was left shocked with a Rs one lakh bill while a widow received a huge bill of Rs 48,000,” he said while urging the CM to refund the concerned amounts.
Meanwhile, a father-son political battle is on the cards in the tiny hamlet of Poriem, where sitting MLA and former Goa Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane of the Congress will lock horns with his son – BJP Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane.
Since the senior Rane is contesting the elections for the 12th time, his son Vishwajeet had requested him to +retire honourably from politics+ as he too would be contesting from the same constituency on a BJP ticket.
An Election Commission of India team landed in Goa recently to oversee arrangements f or the 2022 Legislative assembly elections and also ensure that all political parties make public the criminal antecedents of their candidates – besides also stating the reasons for these candidates being chosen to contest on their party banner.
Meanwhile, drugs seizures in the news. Colva beach – noted for its fine sandy beach – witnessed the Colva Police nabbing a Karnataka native with 1.90 grams of ganja worth Rs 1.32 lakh.
The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari performed the foundation stone ceremony of six projects worth Rs 3,840 crores in Goa.
Appealing to establish Goa as a world-class pollution-free state, Gadkari noted that green hydrogen is the +fuel of the future+ and the Goa Government should emphasize on its usage,
The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers welfare Narendra siongh Tomar on Tuesday said that the Centre will invest Rs 11,000 crores in +oil palm+ mission to reduce the deficit in oil imports and that Goa and Maharashtra will benefit from the minimum support price (MSP).
“While India is surplus in rice and wheat production, it is heavily dependent on imports from foreign countries,” the Minister said while addressing the “Krishi Mahotsav 2022” festival organized at district-level by Directorate of Agriculture in Quepem.
Meanwhile, ahead of the elections, political parties have begun putting up posters and even the government properties have not been spared in this regard. The PWD department has asked District Collectors to clear away all these posters that are being seen even on flyovers and elevated stretches of national highways and roads.
The third wave of Covid has begun in Goa from December 28, according to the Goa Directorate of Health Services . DHC director Dr Ira Almeida said this date witnessed rise in cases and the State will receive its own genome sequencing machine through aid from USAID and Jnpiego.
