RICHMOND HILL, NEW YORK, March 4, 2016 (DNA Info): An annual parade to celebrate the spring Hindu festival of Holi will return to Liberty Avenue this year after one of the feuding organizers accused an NYPD boss of canceling last year’s permit as a favor to a friend. This year’s Phagwah Parade is set to kick off at Liberty Avenue and 133rd Street on March 26, after a judge ruled this week that two feuding parade organizers have to work out a way to plan it together, according to court documents.
The agreement comes after last year’s parade didn’t roll for the first time in 27 years, a blow to Richmond Hill’s large Guyanese community and others who celebrate the festive holiday. The chaos began when board members began fighting over control of one of the parade organizations, according to a report last year in the New York Times.
Then two separate parade organizers both applied for the right to host the parade on the same route on the same date and time, prompting then-106th Precinct Commanding Officer Deputy Inspector Jeffrey Schiff to shoot down the application filed by Herman Singh of the Arya Spiritual Center, Inc., while approving the one filed by Romeo Hitlall of the The Federation of Hindu Mandirs. However, the parade never got off the ground amid a series of bitter feuds within the parade-organizing community, resulting in a series of lawsuits.