Goemkarponn desk
VASCO: Mormugao Municipal Council rolls up its sleeves to discourage the illegal encroachments done by the vegetable vendors in the Vasco vegetable market. The Chairperson of MMC warned vendors of imposing heavy penalties if they found encroachments on the roads next time.
Things have started to speed up a bit in the MMC after the recent resignation issue of the sitting chairperson. On Thursday, Damodar Kaskar, chairperson of MMC, along with the market management committee consisting of councillor Damodar Naik, Mathias(Moti) Monteiro and Dilip Borkar, undertook the anti-encroachment drive in the vegetable market of Vasco.
During the drive, the committee noticed that the vegetable vendors had done several violations, such as illegal encroachments on the road, which has further led to the congested parking and the transport congestion from the F.L.Gomes road.
Chairperson Damodar Kaskar said that a few vendors tried to justify their actions and tried to argue during the inspection, but we have given them a strict warning that such illegalities won’t be tolerated.
He further said that the reason behind undertaking this drive is that we have received several photos from the Office of Vasco traffic cell citing that due to such encroachments on the roads, people are parking their vehicles on the road, which is creating problems for the smooth movement of traffic from the main road. Kaskar added that vendors violating the rules will be fined heavily.
Another councillor, Dilip Borkar, said that the councillors have received several complaints from the locals about the daily encroachments and inconvenience. Therefore we conducted this anti-encroachment drive which we will continue until the vendors are streamlined.
Mathias (Moti) Monteiro, chairman of the Market management committee of MMC, said that the vegetable and fruit vendors repeatedly were told by us not to do encroachments on the road and cause inconvenience to the people.
“For a few days, things were in place, but recently once again, some vendors started violating the rules and encroachments; therefore, we conducted an anti-encroachment drive and warned them. This kind of drive will be held often from now on. We are not against anyone’s livelihood and business, but we want the market to be streamlined,” he said.
As per the available information, three movable kiosks and some crates which were on the roads have been seized by the municipality during this drive, and the same will be released after depositing fines by the vendors.