TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: Seeing red over the possible misuse of its vegetable vendors scheme, the Goa government persisted with its decision to scrap the scheme, fearing that it is being misused, going by the inflated number of applicants.
“We have not made any provisions for this vegetable vendors scheme in the Budget,” said Chief minister Manohar Parrikar in the Goa Assembly earlier this week.
Going by the existing beneficiaries and new applicants who are continuously queuing up to avail of the scheme, Parrikar who holds the agriculture portfolio, stated that the figure is slated to cross 42,000 and agreed with the questions raised by his party colleagues whether there were really so many local vegetable cultivators and vendors in Goa.
In fact some of the MLAs opined that if this was the case then Goa did not need to import vegetables from neighbouring States.
Interestingly, Calangute MLA Michael Lobo who generally rallies behind those in the tourism sector, urged the government not to scrap the scheme. “You identify those genuine and traditional cultivators and instead of giving them Rs 5000 give them Rs 10,000,” he said.
Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte said, “People are still filling forms under the scheme and it would be best that it is linked to the agriculture department so as to promote agriculture.”
Parrikar however refused to budge on his decision to scrap the scheme, stating that those genuinely engaged in the cultivation of vegetables could avail benefits under the scheme for traditional occupations.
