MARGAO
The Gandhi Market Vegetable and Readymade Garments Association has given an eight-day ultimatum to the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) to act against illegal vendors operating on city footpaths and passages, failing which it has threatened to shut down the municipal market.
Association leader and former minister Manohar Azgaonkar warned Margao Municipal Administrator Srinet Kothwale and Chief Officer Madhu Narvekar that vendors would hold an indefinite dharna outside the Municipal building and paralyse its functioning.
He also urged Margao MLA and PWD Minister Digambar Kamat to intervene and provide relief to Gandhi Market vendors and New Market traders, failing which they would launch an agitation.
Blaming the sopo collector for the rise in footpath vendors, Azgaonkar alleged that sopo is being collected from illegal vendors conducting business near the Comunidade building.
He said illegal vending across the city has affected Goan vegetable sellers at Gandhi Market, who cultivate produce and bring it for sale. “Gandhi Market is famous across Goa for vegetable trading. However, the mushrooming number of illegal vendors has affected the livelihood of Goan vegetable growers,” he said.
Azgaonkar questioned how customers could be expected to visit the market when vegetables, footwear and clothes were available on footpaths and passages.
Setting an eight-day deadline for the MMC, he threatened to expose the beneficiaries of sopo collection in the city. “If Gandhi Market vendors are not given justice, they will shut down the market and paralyse Municipal functioning,” he warned.
