The State is witness to hostile relation between locals andscrapyard dealers for very long time. The locals could never come to terms withscrapyard dealers, who they allege carry out illegal activity in the garb ofcollecting city scrap.
Irshad Shaikh who runs a forty year old scrapyard atChandrawaddo in Fatorda said: “Almost forty years back, the Mohidin petrol pumpowners helped us invest in land here. We’ve been doing business since then inautomobile parts by canceling registration of old vehicles and breaking themdown into scrap. It’s legal, but yetpeople oppose us.”
He said that they were open to re-locate their activity ifthe government provides them with an appropriate alternate place.
According to Syed Sadam, he has been dealing with scrap andthat his business was perfectly legal. “We collect automobile parts and sendthem for remolding into steel rods at the Cuncolim and Kundaim industrialestate,” he said.
Most scrap dealers at Chandrawaddo have dumping units atVerna, Vasco and Ponda and sell their metal scrap outside Goa. They wantgovernment to provide them a trade licence and land for rehabilitation.
“We are not small. Wealso have money but we are unnecessarily tormented by the locals, who accuse usof being a nuisance,” Sadam said.
In May 2011, Fatorda residents blocked the main road leadingto Chandrawado and served a two-month deadline on the authorities to rid thearea of scrapyards. Fatorda Development Committee president Camilo Barettodisclosed that they had asked the South Goa Collector to crack down on theillegal scrap yards but regretted that authorities have failed to take anyaction till date.
Acting on a complaint lodged by residents of Gawliwado,Fatorda, the then MMC, chief officer, J B Bhingui, had issued an order for demolitionof an illegal scrapyard construction. But the Deputy Collector, Dashrath Redkarsaid the municipality workers failed to turn up at the scheduled time to carryout the demolition exercise.
