the goan I network
MAPUSA
Virtually putting the Mapusa administration on notice, former chairperson and President of Mapusa Merchants Association (MMA) Ashish Shirodkar said all shopkeepers in the municipal market would shut shop for two hours and evict illegal vendors from the market on Friday.
Incidentally, Friday is a popular market day and people from all over the State and even foreigners make a beeline to Mapusa.
“We want the vendors issue to be resolved immediately. We are not opening our shops for two hours, from 9 to 11 am on Friday (October 26). During the period, all the shopkeepers will move around the market and evict all vendors sitting illegally on pathways and in parking slots,” said Shirodkar.
He cautioned that there could be a law and problem in the market.
Shirodkar said the Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) had utterly failed to find a solution to the burning vendors issue, who illegally squat in every open space available in the market. “If MMC is helpless, then we are taking it on upon ourselves to bring order in the market,” he said.
Blaming the chief officer for failing to constitute the town vending committee, the MMA chief said that the association was planning to file a complaint against the CO.
“We are trying to file a police complaint against the chief officer, Clen Madeira for failure to constitute the town vending committee. As a custodian of the civic body and as per the town vending act, the chief officer is responsible to set up the town vending committee,” he said.
Earlier, Shirodkar and several shopkeepers held a fruitless meeting with Chairperson Ryan Braganza for almost one-and-half hour on the issue of illegal vendors.
The merchants said the vendors were dealing with everything under the sun and could afford to sell goods at cheaper rate as they did not pay any tax apart from the sopo.
“These vendors are eating into the profits of the shopkeepers. They occupy every inch of open space and have become a nuisance in the market,” Shirodkar said.
Another shopkeeper, Naresh Tivrekar, said the vendors also occupy parking slots and at night time store their goods in public toilets.
Braganza appealed to the merchants for some time, as the civic body had started to take some steps to bring discipline in the market.
“We have inherited this problem. This is going on for last 20 years. We want to clamp down on the vendors but we need some time,” Braganza said.
