MARGAO
Margao Municipal officials on Thursday tried to push back the fast food kiosks towards the police station road at the Margao old bus stand.
The officials, however, face a bigger challenge “ how to get the hawkers running the fast food tow away their carts to their place of residence after business hours.
For, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat as well as Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar, beside DySP Traffic Prabodh Shirwaikar had made it point blank clear to the hawkers that the MMC licence condition mandates them to conduct the business in the evening and to tow back the cart after business hours at 11 pm.
While these instructions were issued to the hawkers during an inspection over a month and half ago, the fast food hawkers have defied the fiat, as they continue to leave behind their fast food kiosks at the old bus stand instead of towing them back to their place of residence.
The bigger question police officials wonder is why the Margao Municipal Council controlled by the BJP and MLA Kamat is treating the hawkers with kid gloves. “How come the kiosks continues to be left behind at the old bus stand if the Margao MLA and the MMC chairperson were categorical in saying the carts should be towed away after business hours,” wondered a police official.
The official added. “The MMC does not need rocket science if the MLA and the civic chief are serious in keeping the old bus stand clean. The MMC can very well confiscate the kiosks if the instructions of the MLA and civic body to comply with the licence conditions are violated with impunity.”
In fact, the MMC is facing a challenge of sorts to implement the licence conditions governing the operation of the fast food kiosks at the old bus stand. A senior MMC official remarked that mere pushing back the kiosks behind at the old bus stand will not suffice, unless the powers that be crack a whip and get the carts towed back to the owner’s residence.
Meanwhile, after The Goan highlighted how garbage had piled up just behind the place where the fast food kiosks are operational at the old bus stand, the waste has been lifted away. The entire area, however, still raises a stink with the place littered with waste water.
