MAPUSA
Four months after the Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) carried out a series of extensive anti-encroachment drives in town, shop owners and vendors are back to their earlier space occupying roads and pavements all over the market.
Footpaths near the City Bazaar and Ajay Supermarket at Morod and the road in front of the Alankar theatre in Angod are a few examples which have been re-occupied by the vendors doing brisk business.
In some areas, extensions that were pulled down during the anti-encroachment drive have also reappeared.
In a massive anti-encroachment drive started on May 10, the municipal staff lifted moving carts and furniture from footpaths and road widening areas, dismantled signboards and pulled down illegal extensions which were carried out without permission within the jurisdiction of the Mapusa Municipal Council.
MMC Chief Officer Amitesh Shirvoikar had formed different teams of civic workers to carry out the drive.
Interestingly, this time the council had started the anti-encroachment drive from the outskirts of the town, unlike in the past which began from the main municipal market.
Several citizens had expressed satisfaction with the drive but wondered whether the civic body would be able to sustain the campaign.
“What I had predicted four months ago when the drive started has come true. The vendors are back at their original places and the civic officials are gone to sleep. I had stressed that the civic officials must conduct surprise checks on a regular basis to act against such illegal activities,” said Reshma Naik, a resident of Morod, Mapusa.
A civic staff said it was difficult to contain encroachments, as for most vendors who have returned, it was a question of their livelihood.
“We can remove the encroachers and enforce hefty fines if we get orders from the senior officers,” he said, requesting anonymity.
A senior officer in the MMC’s engineering section informed that such drives should be a continuous process so that the encroachers do not return.
“Hefty fines should be imposed on repeat offenders so that they get a clear message of consequences,” the officer said.
Calls made to Mapusa Chairperson Priya Mishal and Vice-Chairperson, Viraj Phadke went unanswered.
