After toying with the idea of staying away from organising the Banganga and Elephanta festivals this year, the Maharashtra Tourism and Development Corporation (MTDC) has now thought otherwise.
The corporation had planned to hand over the responsibility of organising the events to the culture department citing that it wanted to focus on promoting tourism and organising festivals was part of the culture department’s responsibility.
The decision had caused a lot of heartburn amongst the facilitators, sponsors and organisers, who jointly worked with the MTDC to make these festivals a success. Apart from displaying a vibrant culture, the events have long been the talking points for their aesthetics, heritage and music.
Elephanta festival (since 1989) was solely managed by the MTDC with TCS sponsoring it while the Banganga event (since 1992) was jointly organised by the corporation and the Indian Heritage Society.
Cabinet minister for tourism, Vijay Sinh Mohite-Patil said, “It was decided today after meeting the facilitators that we will conduct the festivals.” The meeting was attended by secretaries of the respective departments and organisers, and the owner of the Banganga Tank.
Joyce Shankaran, additional chief secretary tourism, said: “We will shortly have a meeting with the organisers and sponsors to chalk out what exactly will be the scope of work the MTDC will get into and what they want to do.”
However, organisers feel that the festivals — Banganga to be held in January and Elephanta in February — are expected to get delayed. Garware said, “Since we are beginning late, we may have to push the dates. But we will definitely want that both the festivals are over before March.”
