MARGAO
How many vendors at the Holy Spirit Church feast fair were fined by the Margao Municipal Council for using plastic bags during the 10-day festivities?
Announced with much fanfare by Municipal Chairperson Babita Angle Prabhudesai, Municipal records showed that only a lone vendor was hauled by the civic officials for selling his goods in a plastic carry bag. That's not all. While the Municipal Chairperson and Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes had announced plans to levy the prescribed fine of Rs 5,000 on the erring vendors, Municipal officials let off the erring vendor with a fee of only Rs 2,000.
While the sanitary inspector Viraj Arabekar told the MMC higher ups that his office had hauled up only a lone vendor, the ground reality appears totally different. As curtains came down on the 10-day fair, plastic litter was literally the order of the day at the fair venue on the Margao Municipal acquired land for vehicular parking.
Questions are raised in the corridors of the civic body as to how the municipality has ended up in hauling up only a lone vendor when plastic is strewn all over the place and coupled with the fact that goods were sold in plastic bags to the thousands of customers who made it to the fair during the last 10 days.
MMC officials had no answer when confronted with queries how plastic is strewn all over the venue, other than saying that one vendor was fined Rs 2,000 for violating the plastic ban order.
Inquiries have revealed that the vendor, who was hauled up by the municipal official, was apparently taken to task after his photograph selling goods in plastic bags had featured on the print media.
What's interesting to note that while the MMC chairperson and officials had announced that each vendor will be required to arrange one plastic bag to accumulate the plastic waste, the ground reality appeared totally different. That's not all. The Margao municipality dispatched a vehicle on Monday evening for the collection of the plastic and other waste from the fair venue.
