Team Herald
PANJIM: The tourism season, usually a boon for local meat vendors has turned into a nightmare for Panjim's meat traders who find themselves displaced and struggling to survive after the demolition of the Panjim Municipal Fish market building. Vendors say their livelihoods have been shattered as they wait endlessly for promised rehabilitation.
Speaking to O Heraldo, Manna Bepari, president, Quraishi Meat Traders’ Association of Goa (QMTAG), said, "All the vendors are suffering due to the demolition of the Panjim Municipal Fish Market building. The business of the 12 vendors who had shops in the building has come to a standstill. The building has been demolished but vendors are on the street, without any business. This has affected people who come to purchase mutton, chicken, beef. They were forced to visit Mapusa and Margao markets to purchase them," he said.
"It has been five months since the building was demolished but there is no sign of rehabilitation. We have been making requests to the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) to rehabilitate us but the corporation is not bothered at all. In fact there is a direction from the High Court that we have to be rehabilitated," he said.
"We have been trying to meet Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Panjim MLA Atanasio 'Babush' Monserrate but we are unable to get their appointment. We are requesting them to intervene in this matter and rehabilitate us," he said.
Mushtak Khatib, another vendor, said," This year, we lost more than 60 percent of business. Whatever business is with us because of some of the regular customers who visit our shops. However, this is not enough to sustain the business as we were not provided with sufficient quantities of meat from the Goa Meat Complex either."
It was hardly 25 percent of what we get normally."
According to him, during peak tourism season the Panjim meat vendors used to sell around six to seven quintals of meat but this year they could not do so in the absence of rehabilitation.
Bepari pointed out that even if they are rehabilitated now, it will take them some time to bring their business on the track as they have long term contracts with the hotels which may shift to other suppliers if the issue lingers.