MARGAO
With just a day to go for the feast fair at the Old market, beginning from December 8, Margao Municipal Chairperson Gaurish Sankhwalkar has asserted that stalls will be allotted to the hawkers and vendors in a transparent manner.
Even as Margao Civic Chief Damu Shirodkar charged the Chief Officer for the delay in issuing an order for the feast fair, the Chief Officer said that stalls will be allotted to the vendors/ hawkers in the Municipality at the rate of Rs 7,850 per stall.
The Chief Officer’s statement assumes significance and comes against the fact that stalls at the feast fair were in the past allotted in bulk to certain individuals, who had in turn sublet the stalls for a premium. “When I was the Chief Officer of the Mormugao Municipal Council, I had come out with a system for stall allotment for the Saptah in a transparent manner so that hawkers are not left at the mercy of certain individuals, but were made eligible for the stalls upon the payment of the fixed fees”, he said.
The Chief Officer said a similar system will be followed in the Margao Municipal for the ensuing feast fair at the Old market, beginning from December 8.
When his attention was drawn to the charges leveled by the Margao Civic Chief over the delay in setting up a committee to look into various issues, the Chief Officer said the order could not be issued earlier in view of the intervening holidays.
“I want to assure everyone that the system of stalls allotment will be done by the Margao Municipality in a transparent manner without causing any loss of revenue to the Civic body”, he added.
