PANJIM: A move that could attract contempt of the High Court directives on encroachment of footpaths, the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) has decided to allow annual fair of Gokul Ashtami cum Ganesh Chaturthi along the promenade opposite City municipal market from August 23 to September 4.
The local vendors would be given first preference for stalls at the fair that would accommodate total 200 stalls. The stalls include those selling furniture, traditional kitchen items, wooden items, clothes, etc. CCP would be insisting upon Aadhaar Card to authenticate whether he or she is Goan or non-Goan.
The Bombay High Court at Goa had last year pulled up CCP for allowing fair on the footpaths amounting to encroachments. Despite this, the CCP council had resolved to allow the fair at the site, in September 2018 too, on temporary basis, by evoking the powers under the Corporation Act.
On Tuesday, the CCP witnessed chaos over number of applications for stalls. While CCP has decided to allow only 200 stalls, as many as 500-700 vendors approached the Corporation for forms.
Speaking to Herald, Mayor Uday Madkaikar said the corporation has accepted the applications, which would be scrutinised on Wednesday. “Stall allotment would be done from Wednesday late evening onwards,” he said.
Madkaikar said first preference would be given to local vendors while in case of balance stalls, a lot system would be adopted. “Aadhaar card, election cards will be made mandatory,” he said.
When asked about High Court directions, Mayor refused to comment.
