MARGAO: Margao Municipal Council along with the Directorate of Health Services and Food and Drugs Administration is all set to launch a hygiene check drive vis-à-vis handcarts selling ras omelette, bhel puri, wada pao, etc.

Chief Officer Y B Tawde said the drive is carried out annually as most handcart owners either misuse the facilities provided by the council and do not use the dustbins.

He said, “MMC has a total of 120 handcart licenses including those selling fruits and vegetables and I cannot provide an exact number of the handcart licenses selling eatables.”

Last year, a similar drive was carried wherein 46 handcarts were seized for not adhering to required and prescribed hygienic parameters. Of these some were fined while others were asked to comply with the mandatory requirements. Tawde agreed that follow up action to check whether the requirements were complied with was not undertaken by the Council due to lack of manpower.

He lamented that the council is not getting the required manpower and cited the latest case wherein the council had advertised for 80 daily wage workers but only three appeared. The wage of Rs 323 per day offered by the council is a major deterrent, he opined and added that in the open market labourers demand and are paid Rs 500 per day.