Anil Shankhwalker
PORVORIM: Vegetable and fruit vendors are one of the biggest components of the Mapusa market, and they also have to suffer the most. Throughout the year, they have to sell their goods in an area that is exposed to the elements. Their lives have become miserable, but to earn their livelihood, they have to have sit under the scorching sun in the summer and put up with an inundated market during the monsoons. Considering their problems, the Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) had decided to construct a vegetable market for them.
MMC had taken up the market project in 2005 at an initial cost of Rs 1.33 crore. The project was later abandoned due to a payment dispute between MMC and the contractor. At that time, 45 percent of the work had been completed and the contractor had been paid Rs 48 lakh. With MMC unable to complete the work, the project was handed over to GSUDA, which demolished the half-completed structure and started over from scratch.
The market project is nearly complete. The vendors will have a better seating arrangement as well as several fans at the market. However, as the code of conduct for the municipal elections came into force on September 25, the market will be inaugurated only after the elections in October.
Vegetable vendor Laxmi Naik expressed happiness over the nearly-completed vegetable market, which was a need of the hour. She added, “Vegetable vendors have suffered many hardships all these years. Finally, God has come to their rescue. Now our only request to MMC is that it should not increase the sopo fees for vegetable vendors.”
Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) Chairperson Roopa Bhakta stated that once the market is inaugurated, all vegetable and fruit vendors will be shifted there. She added, “An area of 1×1.5 sq mts will be allotted to each vendor. Thereafter, MMC will not allow any vendor to sit in the open space at the old market. That space will be used for vehicle parking.”
Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) Vice President Rajsingh Rane stated that the new market, which cost Rs 3.75 crore, had been constructed on an area of 1,300 sq mts, with a seating arrangement for 250 vegetable and fruit vendors.
