Panaji: One person was rescued from last year’s stampede spot at Shirgao on Sunday during a full-fledged mock drill ahead of the Shree Devi Lairai Jatra on Tuesday. The mock drill, which started at 9pm on Saturday, ended at around 3am on Sunday.Around 2,000 police personnel, traffic police, fire force personnel, health officials, volunteers, and revenue staff were present at Shirgao to perform the mock drills.The person performing as a ‘dhond’ — special devotees who would observe strict fasting and abstinence before they walked over the ‘homkund’ or the ritual coal embers — accidentally fell a few metres into the homkund when he was on his way towards the homkund at the mock drill.CM Pramod Sawant was present at Shirgao to review the preparations. North Goa collector Ankit Yadav, North Goa SP Harish Madkaikar and director of fire services Nitin Raikar briefed the CM about arrangements.Sawant said that mock drills were successfully conducted. He also visited the control room set up at the ‘homkund’ from where the entire movement of the crowd and ‘dhonds’ will be seen.Yadav said that during the mock drill, some observations were made related to signages and obstacles, and these would be put in place before Monday. The administration identified six sectors to watch.Arrangements have also been made for public announcements, so that the public can be given proper directions to move without hassle. There are two queues at the temple for the public and ‘dhonds’ to enter to seek blessings.The village expects around 2 lakh visitors on the first day of the jatra, with the most crowd expected at night during the ‘homkund’ ritual. A total of 40,000 ‘dhonds’, special devotees of the goddess, are expected to attend the first day of the five-day jatra.Until last year, permission was given to over 400 stalls for the jatra fair; however, this year, only 34 stalls have been allowed, mostly selling lime juice and water to ‘dhonds’.
