NT NETWORK
Panaji
The Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) on Monday morning carried out a drive against encroachments in the city municipal market.
CCP Commissioner Sanjith Rodrigues, who led the drive with the assistance of municipal inspectors and police force, said that the encroachments were razed in response to the complaints received from
the public.
It is learnt that altogether ten vendors including fruit sellers in the market had increased the height of their vending space, thus encroaching upon the area of the municipality.
Furthermore, many of these vendors had constructed wooden structures near their sopo and were using them as storage spaces, which were infested by rats and cockroaches. The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), taking cognisance of the same, had asked the CCP to act upon it.
Confirming the same, CCP Commissioner Rodrigues said that his team had started this drive few days ago and the encroachments, which had not been dealt with then, were razed on Monday.
“We did not damage the products of the vendors in any way,” he informed, pointing out that the market looks cleaner and disciplined after the drive.
Rodrigues also said that the CCP believes in zero tolerance to encroachments.
President of Panaji Market Tenants Association Rajendra Dhamaskar and its secretary Dharmendra Bhagat, besides vendors and shopkeepers opposed this action and the situation turned tense for a while.
Officials of the Panaji Market Tenants Association called this drive as harassment of the vendors and shopkeepers, and demanded that Rodrigues be removed from his post immediately.
They also said that now the CCP wants to enter into a Leave and Licence Agreement with the market tenants, instead of entering into a lease agreement with them, in turn creating more troubles for the vendors and shopkeepers.
The CCP Commissioner informed that the exercise of signing the Leave and Licence agreement with the market tenants is in process and quite a few market tenants have already signed the agreement.
Meanwhile, city Mayor Uday Madkaikar told this daily that he was completely kept in the dark by the CCP Commissioner while carrying out the drive on Monday. “I learnt about it from the media,”
he added.
“I had no idea about it,” Madkaikar stated.
When asked to react on the anti-encroachment drive of the CCP as linked to the city municipal market, some regular visitors to the market supported the same. They stated that the market needs to be kept clean and hygienic.
