MAPUSA
The Mapusa Municipal Council’s anti-encroachment drive gained speed and muscle on Saturday, with the civic staff swooping down on shopkeepers and vendors to remove unauthorized encroachments on footpaths and evict illegal vendors in Mapusa market.
Encroachments carried out by over 200 shops and vendors were cleared and four truckloads of goods were seized by the civic staff in the drive.
The scale of the drive was more intense on this occasion since it first began on Monday.
No one was spared including the brother of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who runs a general store in the market.
All the retailers, who made their way back on Friday at the main market entrance, were once again cleared from the area.
After the drive, the main market entrance appeared open and spacious with many shoppers appreciating the municipality’s action to clean the footpaths.
“What a marvellous feeling. For once, we can carry on with our shopping without having to rub against one another. Three cheers to the Mapusa civic officials,” said Dr Anita, a Siolim resident on an errand in the market.
At many places, the civic staff was at the receiving end of the shop owners, who questioned their sudden enthusiasm to clear the footpaths.
“Where were you all for the last five years,” the chief minister’s sister-in-law was overheard questioning the civic staff. The drive also had its share of controversy with some shopkeepers blaming MMC’s Market Inspector Vikas Kambli for acting in a partisan manner. “He (market inspector) has been tough and rough on soft targets, while influential shop owners were treated with kid gloves,” a shop owner at the receiving end of the market inspector said.
While most of the lanes near the entrance of the market were cleared in the morning, later in the evening, some shopkeepers started to display their wares on the footpath.
On Saturday, The Goan had reported on retailers and vendors returning to their original places, despite being evicted, making a mockery of the encroachment drive.
