The government, after having made an ex-gratia payment to some 35-odd vendors who had allegedly suffered losses due to a fire at the Panjim Municipal Market, is preparing to give an additional compensation of around Rs 1 lakh each to them.
Most of these vendors are possibly illegal squatters who are occupying space in the market without the legal approval of the CCP.
As per the N D Agarwal report on the reported illegalities in the Panjim market, more than 95 per cent of the over 1000 vendors are in illegal possession of their stalls, and have not paid the rentals or water and electricity charges for close to 15 years. The accumulated dues have mounted to close to Rs 14 crore, pushing the CCP into a precarious financial crisis, as a result little civic and developmental activities could be carried out for the last few years.
These vendors have been raking in the money at the cost of the taxpaying citizens of Panjim and now the taxpaying citizens have been punished by raising the house tax and other fees in an attempt to narrow the financial gap.
It is also suspected that the cause of the fire was carelessness of the vendors.
The government is handing out tax-payers money without conducting a thorough and diligent audit of the legal status of these vendors, as well as an audit and certification by the competent authority of the cause of the fire.
There is no constitutional provision for rewarding offenders and violators, who are in fact to be penalized.
Why then does the government encourage offenders and violators by rewarding them with packages and regularization of illegalities, instead of applying the rules and penalizing them?
