It's a riot of colours for Goa now

After witnessing communal riots early this month, the Goan town of Sanvordem saw riots of colour on the day of Holi today with the streets which were once dotted with vandalised materials splashed with a rainbow of different hues.

"Everything went on smoothly. This festival will help bring back normalcy in the town," said Shekhar Prabhudesai, superintendent of police (south). The Sanvordem town, which is about 60 kms from here, saw communal violence for two days early this month as two groups clashed over demolition of a disputed structure used by a minority community for prayers.

Currently, the town has presence of rapid action force personnel, who were stationed after the riots, the SP said. "Confidence is being built amongst people and they celebrated Holi forgetting all hatred. Normalcy is restored in the town," said Prabhudesai.

After the violence, various social organisations had began taking measures to restore communal harmony. "Religious prayer meetings, organised here couple of days back, evoked good response," said a citizen. "Holi was a good opportunity for all the communities to mingle with each other. Riot scars are fresh but still Holi helped to bring back normalcy here," said Neeraj Naik, a resident.

"Though the town is coming back to normalcy, the police have taken adequate measures to check a repeat of March 3 incident. We are vigilant but we feel that people are wise enough not to disrupt the harmony," said a top police official here.