Team Herald
PANJIM: Local shop vendors selling their goods at Dona Paula jetty point on Tuesday showed their resentment towards the newly constructed and to be allotted shop space for their relocation.
Concy Cabral, one of the vendor said that they are into this business for more than 25 years.
“Instead of building a concrete structure on the allotted space, the government has built a box like structure supported by the metal poles. At the time when Tauktae Cyclone had struck, the rooftop of the same structure had been blown away due to gusty winds. The government is playing cheap tactics to remove us from here,” alleged Cabral.
“The box-like structure constructed to shift them from the current location to the new one is hardly 1×1 metre. The construction is such that four shops facing in four different directions are made to fit in a box-like structure. This arrangement will give business to either the front vendors or the backside ones, with none or very less, to the shops in the centre,” they said.
Andre Gonsalves, lemonade shop vendor aggrieved saying, “Shops are constructed but allotment is not yet done”.
Nelson Cabral, councillor of Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), said that the High Court of Bombay at Goa has approved five-metre space to each vendor but the space allotted to each newly constructed shop is far less than that.
“The CCP has already written to the government asking to give the possession of stalls to the shop owners. Unless and until the possession is given by the government to the CCP, the civic body can’t allot the new shops to the vendors,” claimed Cabral.
Total of 54 shops has been constructed to be allotted to the 54 registered vendors whereas the other 10 shops which are been run into the area are unregistered.
