Owners of business establishments situated around the garden Garcia da Orta in Panjim have a valid grouse when they say that the fair obstructs access to their shops and offices and that the fair vendors create a nuisance by sleeping and eating on the footpaths in front of their shops. All one needs to do to verify their statements is walk around the area and see for oneself how the fair has blocked the entry to the business establishments. They, however, are not the only ones to have cause to complain. People visiting Panjim have also felt the effects of the faulty planning by the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP). Nobody is against the fair that adds to the festive atmosphere, but there are two issues here – hygiene and disruption of normal activity – that CCP has not taken into consideration when permitting the fair.
When permission was granted to set up stalls, CCP should have ensured that the vendors who will be occupying the roads and footpaths for three days had adequate facilities for preparing their meals and relieving themselves. If the authorities make it mandatory for the organisers of any event, like a dance or a music show, that lasts just a few hours to have portable washroom facilities, CCP should have also ensured that similar facilities of a satisfactory level were made available to the vendors. Just how does CCP expect the people from the fair to cook their meals and relieve themselves, when all they have been given is an area on the roadside from where to sell their wares? Providing the very basic hygienic facilities when permitting the fair should be CCP’s responsibility and there cannot be any disagreement on that. Not making sufficient arrangements for basic hygiene of the fair vendors should be considered violation of their human rights.
The other issue is of traffic congestion. For the duration of the fair – three days – the streets around the garden are closed to traffic. This puts added pressure on the other streets of Panjim creating traffic snarls and jams, resulting in frayed tempers and delays. On any normal working day the streets around the Church Square are a traffic nightmare, and when the fair is on, the flow of traffic just gets worse. On the last two days, the bumper-to-bumper queue of cars on 18 June Road had reached the Pharmacy College, as vehicles inched their way forward. Vehicles that turned into side streets to escape the jam found that the flow of traffic was no better on these. There was little the traffic policemen on duty on the streets could do as there was nowhere they could divert the traffic to so as to ease the flow.
It is evident that none of this was considered when the fair was permitted around the Panjim garden. Yet, just a few weeks ago, the High Court of Bombay at Goa had directed that the fair on the streets of Margao be shifted to the open space available on the land belonging to the SGPDA. The High Court ruling had come after an NGO had moved the court against the fair on the footpaths along the National Highway. Taking this as a precedent CCP should have acted immediately and considered moving the fair to another area where it would not obstruct normal life and cause traffic problems. From the manner in which CCP has conducted itself in this matter it appears that the corporation is awaiting a direction from the court to move the place.
CCP has a year to plan where to hold the next fair. It should use this time to identify the area and make provisions for a well-organised event, where the needs of the fair vendors are met, and so too of those who visit the fair, while not disrupting normal life in the city.
