PANJIM: Have the stall owners been provided with toilet facilities? Is there proper management of waste collection? Is there any Goan stall owner in the fair? These are the questions raised by various shop and establishment owners, whose ire the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) is facing for failing to look into their request to reconsider holding fairs near the Garcia de Orta garden in Panjim.
A collective group of shop and establishment owners on all sides of the Garcia de Orta garden had on November 6 petitioned Panjim Mayor Surendra Furtado to reconsider holding fairs citing the garbage nuisance and inconvenience to the residents and public.
“The event entails closing off an entire block of business area surrounding the Garcia de Orta garden for the entire duration of the fair. This causes several problems in the city. Due to poor infrastructure in the aforementioned area, parking, which is already a scarce resource, becomes completely unavailable and thus both the shop owners and customers refrain from entering the area, and hence causes great losses to our establishments,” the letter signed by owners of nearly 23 establishments, reads.
Furtado replied saying that this being a traditional fair, CCP has passed a resolution to allow stalls along the garden for three days, beginning from December 8, the Feast of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception. As a result, the fair traders, 95 percent being outsiders, have begun to erect their stalls along the area, blocking public movement. Over hundreds of stalls come up along the 18 June Road, Church Square and Garcia de Orta garden area for the feast.
The basic concern raised by the shopkeepers here is about the sanitation, waste generation and no vehicular access and parking facility apart from facing a loss in business during three days.
“CCP is allowing the fair in the area without providing any basic infrastructure facilities. There is no toilet, no garbage bins, nothing. The area becomes so unhygienic that people don’t turn up. This is not a traditional fair. Never in the past were the stalls allowed in this area. This is not accepted,” said Catrin Fernandes, owner of Garden View Hotel.
Pawaskar, Store Manager, Bharne Creations, said that there is always a slag in business during this period as due to traffic problems customers skip the shop. “Lot of waste gets generated in the area. Our regular customers distance themselves during this period. But we can’t help as CCP gives them permission,” he said.
Owner of J D Fernandes store, Oswald Fernandes said that CCP failed to act on their grievances, which were raised before them on November 6. “Apart from facing traffic and parking problems, we would like to know why is that no local traders are promoted to put up stalls in the fair. These are all outsiders who litter the place leading to garbage being created. CCP is mum on the entire issue,” he said.
The owners also alleged that the fair, held twice a year, also causes noise pollution.
HERALD VIEW
Shop owners around the Garcia de Orta garden have raised very valid points. Sanitation and garbage management should be taken into consideration when permission for a fair is given. Besides this, traffic movement in Panjim is always a major problem. With the closing of the streets around the garden, the problem gets aggravated. CCP must find an alternative place for the fair, one where it will neither impede the smooth flow of traffic nor give rise to sanitation and garbage management problems0.
