MARGAO
Margao’s station road has acquired another notoriety of sorts. Known for the infamous ‘Chor
Bazars’ on Sundays and a hide out for many a petty criminal, the station road is now playing host to an illegal vegetable market right under the nose of the Margao Municipal Council and the police.
Vegetable vendors occupy the portion of the station between the Sambari book stall and further down every evening after 7 pm. That the vegetable selling business activity hampers the smooth flow of traffic on the congested road is an open secret.
Sadly, neither the MMC market inspectors nor the squad recently constituted by the Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes headed by sanitary inspector Viraj Arabekar seem to have any clue over the bustling vegetable market. Leave alone cracking a whip against the vendors, the municipal authorities seem to have developed cold feet in taking over the migrant vendors.
In fact, the newly-constituted squad headed by the market inspector Viraj Arabekar is mandated to crack a whip against the encroachments, besides illegal vending in the city, but in vain.
It’s still unclear from where the vendors, doing brisk business along the station road, come from, but the fact remains that they operate in the evening after 7 pm everday.
In the past, the Gandhi market vegetable vendors association led by Rajendra Azgaonkar had demanded action against the illegal vendors engaged in selling vegetables. But, leave alone initiating action, the municipal authorities seem to have turned a blind eye to the illegalities for reasons best known to the babus and the city fathers.
