MARGAO
What’s next on the agenda of the Margao Municipal Council, a day after an inspection on fire preparedness exposed the civic body hollow with the encroachments in the market passages and on footpaths being the order of the day.
While the civic body and the market inspectors came under sustained attack for their utter failure to clear the encroachments on the footpaths and in the passages as part of their routine duties, a question of sorts may come to stare at the Margao councillors and the civic babus, besides the BJP controlling the Municipality “ will the civic body come out with an action plan to tackle the encroachments in the city footpaths and market passages and convey a message loud and clear to Madgavkars that Wednesday’s action in the market was not just an one-off action, but the Municipality is ready to crack a whip against the illegal activities.
Well, when this question was posed to Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar, he said a message has indeed been conveyed to the committee members of the New Market Traders Association and the Gandhi Market Readymade and Vegetable Vendors Association to get the passages in the market cleared of the encroachments.
“We expect the two panels to convince and persuade their members and traders to see reason and clear the encroachments by themselves before the axe from the Municipality falls on the encroachments and the illegal activities, if any, in the two Municipal-owned markets,” Sankhwalkar said.
He further said the MMC is working on a plan how to get rid of the street vendors occupying the city footpaths in violation of the 1997 High Court order against encroachments. “We are doing the exercise of sending messages to the traders and the vendors to stop the encroachments before the MMC steps in to clear the illegalities. We are just giving the traders and vendors time to clear the encroachments or face the whip from the civic body,” he added.
Sources, however, said the Chief Officer and other senior officials should hold the market inspectors accountable for inaction and remaining as silent spectators to the rampant encroachments on the city footpaths and passages.
