NT NETWORK

Panaji

The Congress party, on Friday, alleged that illegal kiosks that were located outside the Goa Medical College and Hospital Complex, Bambolim have been demolished by the government “to help Sodexo grow its business.”

The opposition party asked that if the vendors were conducting their business illegally then why the local panchayat and other government departments were collecting tax from them.

“The conspiracy against the vendors is to benefit the Sodexo Group. They pay in crores to Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on a monthly basis, and that’s the reason kiosks of poor vendors have been demolished,” alleged Youth Congress president Varad Mardolkar, while interacting with the media persons at the GMC.

It is pertinent to note that Sodexo has been providing food service for the in-house patients at the hospital and is also running canteens of the GMC.

The Congress leaders and workers visited the vendors at the GMC to extend their support to them, and demanded with the government to provide compensation to the vendors for the loss they suffered, and to rehabilitate them at the earliest at a suitable location.

Vice-president of the Congress party Sankalp Amonkar said that along with vendors, poor patients and their relatives will suffer, claiming that the Sodexo charges more for food than what was offered by the vendors outside the GMC premises.

“Congress party doesn’t support illegalities but on humanitarian grounds the government should have given them relief during this pandemic,” Amonkar said.

Leader of Congress’ Santa Cruz block Rudolf Fernandes claimed that St Andre MLA Francisco Silveira and Santa Cruz MLA Antonio Fernandes were fully aware that demolition of kiosks was going to take place, and they did nothing to stop it.

“Both MLAs had switched off their phones when the demolition squad came at the site in the wee hours of Thursday. They pretended that they had no knowledge about the demolition, they failed to protect the poor vendors,” he added.