PONDA: For the 100-odd vendors and shop owners who conduct business at the dilapidated PDA market building in Usgao, every day is a gamble. With the walls and pillars of the building already crumbling, and the roof on the verge of collapse, the vendors are at risk of injury or worse, but have no other option, they say.
The ground plus one storey PDA Market building was constructed and inaugurated in 1992 by former Ponda MLA Ravi Naik. The building has around 36 shops, besides fruit and vegetable vendors on the ground floor. The hall on the first floor was abandoned due to lack of maintenance, the leaky roof and the unsafe condition of the building.
“The government has all but abandoned this building; nobody even charges sopo tax from us anymore. We are willing to shift to another location if this building is renovated or reconstructed, but nobody has taken any initiative in the matter,” said an elderly vegetable vendor.
Another vendor, who said he has been doing business there since 1992, said that the building, which is only 30 years old, has never been maintained properly. “We had held a protest against the government’s negligence around six years ago, and were assured a new market shed. Nothing has changed,” he said, adding that they are afraid that the roof could fall on their heads, at any time.
“It is clear that the rods of the beams and columns are fully rusted, and I had a narrow escape last week when a large slab of plaster fell on my table,” said the owner of an eatery in the building. A panch member from Usgao said that the panchayat had approached the PDA about the repairs, but the PDA had asked the panchayat to deposit a sum of Rs 40 lakh to hand over the market to the local body. Sarpanch Narendra Gaonkar said that the proposal for the construction of a new market complex has already been forwarded to the government. “The authorities had promised the vendors that they would address the leaky roof with metal sheets. I urge local MLA and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane to look into the matter,” he said.
