PANJIM: Terming it as “draconian”, the All Goa Merchants’ Association (AGMA) has decided to shut down their shops across all eleven municipal areas on January 7, protesting against the recently notified Goa Municipalities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020.
The Goa Governor recently promulgated the Ordinance, which seeks to regularise unauthorised possession of municipal shops and thereby generate revenue to the council and to limit the lease period of shops to ten years only, thereafter auction the same.
The AGMA on Sunday held their meeting in Mapusa, wherein it was unanimously decided to shut all the shops in the municipal areas on January 7 and to hold a major protest at Azad Maidan, demanding that the Ordinance be withdrawn immediately. Addressing media persons after the meeting, Mapusa Merchants’ Association president Ashish Shirodkar said that the amendments are draconian.
Shirodkar said the merchants demand that the Ordinance be withdrawn immediately. “We will protest on January 7. The every individual merchant and trader will shut his shop and protest with family members at Azad Maidan seeking justice,” he said.
“Many Goan families are dependent on their traditional businesses which have been carried out from municipal premises as lessees. The ordinance has restricted their right only to ten years, that is they won’t be able to run the business after ten years,” he said.
Shirodkar charged that the move is traumatising to the merchants who are still reeling under the economic hardship caused by COVID-19 pandemic.
“The government should have been sympathetic towards us. But the case is otherwise. The government is out to finish our business,” he said.
The Congress too has demanded withdrawal of the Ordinance and that the amendment be discussed and debated on the Floor of the House during the upcoming winter session of the State legislative Assembly scheduled from January 25.
