State pulls out all stops for incident-free Shirgao jatra

Panaji: Lakhs of devotees and ‘dhonds’—special devotees of the goddess—will attend the Shree Devi Lairai jatra at Shirgao on Tuesday under tight security and heavy police deployment. A year after the stampede, the jatra will be celebrated under the surveillance of 94 CCTV and PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras across six zones.

Shree Devi Lairai will come out from the temple on Tuesday at midnight, and over the next four days, she will visit homes in Shirgao to bless her devotees. She will then return to the temple on Saturday.

From the second day, a large number of devotees visit the village for ‘kaulotsav’.

A total of 967 police personnel, 460 traffic police, 65 fire service personnel, three teams of doctors, and around 150 volunteers will be on duty round the clock from Tuesday morning till Wednesday morning to conduct the jatra in a smooth manner.

A total of 40,000 ‘dhonds’ are expected to attend the first day of the five-day jatra. A control room has been set up at the jatra, which will function as the central co-ordination hub for all departments, enabling real-time monitoring, communication, and prompt response to any emergent situation. Goa police’s traffic cell has made arrangements to park 4,000 vehicles on the Assonora side, behind the temple and in mining lease areas.

In the temple, separate arrangements are made for the public and the ‘dhonds’.

The directorate of fire and emergency service has installed a rapid development control command system for the first time in Goa to control any untoward incident related to fire.

A robust public address system has also been installed at 14 strategic locations across Shirgao to facilitate timely announcements, dissemination of safety instructions, effective crowd management, and emergency communication.

To avoid any obstacles for devotees and ‘dhonds’ to walk at the jatra, encroachments along the route, including unauthorised retaining walls, have been removed, and all the shops and establishments will be closed on jatra day. Only 34 stalls have been permitted by authorities at the jatra behind the temple and near ‘homkund’.

The administration conducted a full-fledged mock drill at Shirgao to make sure all things are in place; it removed the hiccup faced at the mock drill and has geared up for the jatra. The mock drill, which started at 9pm on Saturday, ended at around 3am on Sunday.

North Goa collector Ankit Yadav urged devotees and ‘dhonds’ visiting on the day of jatra to follow the instructions and system put in place at Shirgao so that the jatra is conducted peacefully.
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