Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: In order to assist with the building’s demolition, the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) sealed 12 stores in the Panaji fish market building. However, the CCP has not taken any decision on providing the vendors with temporary stalls or any other place to carry out operations.
Recall that on August 14, the CCP ordered the stores’ occupants to leave the property within 24 hours due to its decision to demolish it.
When the structure was deemed unsafe the previous year, notifications asking the owners of the shops, most of which sold meat, to leave the property were served.
The structure has outlived its economically useful life, is in poor condition, and is currently unsafe for human habitation, according to a structural stability report that the Corporation got from the Government Polytechnic, Panaji.
Rajendra Dhamaskar, head of the Panaji Market Tenants Association, criticized the CCP’s action, stating that before closing the stores, the shop owners ought to have been offered an alternative plan.
“They were told that something would be done and that a temporary arrangement would be arranged for them, but as of right now, nothing has changed. Today, the stores are closed and there is no information available. The provision of electricity and water has been shut off. It is utterly unfair. When they were prepared to change, what was the necessity to do so, he asked.
The official said that the fitness survey report of the building obtained from the consultant engineer of Government Polytechnic, Altinho, had reported that it had outlived its economic life, is lying in a distressed condition, and is unsafe for human occupation.
Last week, the CCP issued an order to the vendors to evict the building within 24 hours, failing which it had warned to do the same and seal the building.
