City carnival committee reconstituted

PANAJI: Panjim Carnival Committee has been reconstituted on Wednesday with CCP commissioner Agnelo Fernandes as chairperson and Joaquim Teles as its president. The carnival parade will be held in Panaji on February 18.
The committee was reconstituted as there was hardly any representation from the capital city's citizens. Election commission officials, in the first week of January, had told mediapersons that Carnival could be celebrated, provided that its organizing committee did not comprise any political functionaries.
But, a week later, the CCP announced that it had formed a Carnival organizing committee with city mayor Yatin Parekh as its chairperson. Over 50% of the committee comprised CCP councillors, incidentally, most of them from Taleigao. Social activist Rui Ferreira lodged a complaint with the chief election commission that the committee constituted was a violation of the election code of conduct. The new committee comprises Francisco Martins and Tony Dias as advisors; Timoteo Fernandes, Napolean D'Souza, Messias Tavares, Hipolito Dias, Mario Fernandes, Nolasco Pereira and John D'Silva as vice presidents; John Aguiar as secretary and Thomas Machado as joint treasurer. Committee members are Lourenco Fernandes, Aaron Teles, Cheryl Almeida, Herculano Ribeiro, Roderic Monteiro, Nicola Lopes, Aloysius D'Souza, Greg Furtado and Prasad Amonkar.