EAM HERALD
PANJIM: It was business as usual in the Panjim municipal market a day after 38 stalls went up in flames. Unaffected vendors were thankful that the fire spared their stalls, while those who were not so lucky were quietly calculating the exact amount of loss to claim insurance benefits.
“There are many vendors like myself who come from a financially weak background. It’s a huge loss to lose even a single rupee… I feel lucky that my stall was not caught in the fire,” Sarita Chari, a middle-aged vegetable vendor, told Herald.
Another lady vendor Pamola blamed the local authorities and the vendors themselves for negligence. “This is not the first time that a shop in this market complex has caught fire. But we still haven’t learnt a lesson. In every small stall, you see high powered LEDs. The electricity consumption is massive,” she said.
She added, “This was bound to happen. Neither the municipality nor the electricity department bother to punish the violators.”
Vendors were also making arrangements to set up their stalls once again. “It’s a huge investment for us. Nothing has been left in the fire,” one of them said.
Stalls selling vegetables, fruits, flowers and articles of worship were burnt. The cause of the fire is being ascertained by the electricity department and police sleuths. Since the fire occurred at about 3 am, there were no human casualties.
The market complex has been running a fire risk. Despite the existence of fire safety equipment, inspections by fire and emergency services (FES) have found them not well maintained.
“These need to be maintained and there has to be one person responsible for operations during any eventuality. The people are at a fire risk,” fire and emergency services (FES) FES Director Ashok Menon, who accompanied the fire fighting
team to douse the fire, told Herald.
