MARGAO: With the Rosary Church feast in Navelim more than a week away, hawkers are seen selling balloons along the roads and footpaths in Navelim. More than a dozen hawkers were standing on the National Highway road in front of Goa Palace obstructing flow of traffic.
While most of the area occupied by the hawkers falls within Navelim Panchayat, part of the area also falls within the Margao Municipal area. Navelim Sarpanch Vilma D’Silva informed that she along with other panchayat officials told the hawkers to leave but they wouldn’t listen. “We will be writing to the Collector and to the Police to remove any encroachment on the road and footpath,” she said. The Margao Chief Officer Siddhivinayak Naik informed that he would take cognizance of the issue.
Franky Pires, a Navelim resident, informed that balloon hawkers are coming to Navelim much before the feast for the last three years. “Every year, the panchayat and the parish priest have a meeting with the police on the hawking problem. A soon as Nuvem feast gets over, the hawkers move to Navelim. Each balloon hawker has a family of eight to nine members. During the day they loiter around, they send their children to beg and they also pickpocket. They defecate in the open fields near the river. In the evening they encroach on the road and sell balloons. The authorities must take action against them. I was surprised to see them with android phones,” Franky said.
The stalls for the Navelim fair are yet to be allotted. The sarpanch informed that only if they receive NOC from the landowners, they would give permission for erecting the stalls. She said that till date they have not received any applications for stalls since the feast it one week away.
