MARGAO: Extending their support to the Margao Municipal Council’s decision to ban plastic from April 1, town market vendors have demanded that the licence granted by the civic body to those willing to pay the fees be cancelled.
Members of Margao New Market Traders’ Association and Gandhi Market Readymade Clothes, Vegetable Vendors Association met the Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes to discuss the proposed ban on plastic from April 1, 2018 onwards.
The vendors said MMC should first stop supply of plastic bags to the shopkeepers and demanded that factories producing the bags be stopped immediately. However, Johnson explained to the vendors that the rules only empower him to take action against the vendors using plastic.
The vendors also demanded that the MMC’s proposal permitting the vendors by paying an annual sum of Rs 48,000 to provide plastic bags to customers be scrapped. “This amounts to penalising the poor while letting the moneyed section to get away with anything,” they said.
“The MMC has a different yardstick for different people and seeks to target only the poor while letting the rich flourish in the market,” Rajendra Azgaonkar, president of Gandhi Market Vendors’ Association alleged.
New Market Vendors Association President Vinod Shirodkar accused the MMC of trying to “annihilate” Goans conducting their business in the market.
“As it is there are very few Goans conducting business in the MMC markets, which have been taken over by migrants and this decision of the council will totally drive away even the few Goans, who are carrying out business now,” he said.
Chief Officer Johnson explained that it was up to the vendors to stop the sale of plastic bags in the market. “If you refuse to buy than nobody will come to sell those plastic bags in the market,” he said but none of the vendors agreed to his suggestion.
Johnson appealed to the vendors to co-operate or else he said that he had no alternative but to file FIR against those not adhering to the new proposal.
“The law permits me to levy a fine of Rs 5,000 following which I can file an FIR with the police which will result in a case and then let the vendors move courts over their matters,” he said while explaining that those paying fee of Rs 48,000 will be permitted to keep plastic bags of over 50 microns that can be given to the customers only for a price and not for free.
