MARGAO
Two days after retail vendors called for action against retail sale of fish in the wholesale fish market, the SGPDA and police cracked a whip by stopping the activity inside the market at 9 am.
While the traditional fishermen cried foul over the police action, hundreds of migrants vendors swarmed along the wholesale fish market road doing roaring business right under the eyes of the men-in-uniform.
In fact, the migrant fish vendors were seen alongside the road between the wholesale fish market and the bridge and on the other side, which comes under the jurisdiction of Seraulim village.
Driven out of the wholesale fish market at 9 am, the traditional fish vendors wondered why the police and the PDA have initiated action against them. They demanded to know whether the vendors from the PDA retail fish market cannot see the hundreds of migrants selling fish along the roadside outside the wholesale fish market.
While saying that SGPDA Chairman Wilfred D’Sa and others have helped them to sell the fish in retail in the wholesale fish market, Liberetta Fernandes said the decision to stop their activity by 9 am will adversely affect them.
“We are traditional fisherfolk who come to the market with the catch from the coast. There cannot be fixed timings for the traditional fishermen and fisherwomen,” she said.
After being driven out of the market by the police, the traditional fisherwomen were seen together to discuss on how to go about the matter.
In the meantime, migrant vendors were seen in large numbers along the wholesale fish market road selling fish throughout Sunday morning. Though a police jeep was found stationed outside the wholesale fish market entrance gate on the road, the presence of the men-in-uniform did not deter the migrant vendors from continuing with their business.
