Margao town has been suffering some chronic and perennial problems like that of unorganised traffic, haphazard parking, over-spilling garbage and sewage disposal, besides problems due to operation of wholesale fruit and vegetable market in the market areas etc.
An old problem that has returned to haunt Margao and add to the nuisance value is that of the laborers standing in the town and causing lot of inconvenience, for pedestrians and motorists alike. The Town & Country planning Minister Vijai Sardesai too has acknowledged this as a problem of a serious nature and hopes to come to a comprehensive solution soon.
With construction and development going on all over Margao and South Goa, labourers for the work have become major requirement. These laborers come in swarms early mornings in Margao. Garbage, obstruction to traffic are among problems that were highlighted earlier but this problem is much more serious than what meets the eye.
Inconvenience, which was just limited to the traffic and pedestrians problems until a few months ago has grown substantially. Now, complaints of people and businessmen near the MMC areas, especially women have surfaced, where laborers have been reported to be indulging in passing lewd comments and also attempting to allegedly outrage modesty of women by various indecent actions.
“We have been facing a lot of problems due to the labourers standing in the passages here behind MMC. The women staff of shops has been the most inconvenienced due to these labourers. They stand in front of the shutters of the shop and do not move to clear the passage when requested, ” a women shop owner pointed out.
The labourers do not allow clients to enter the shop and when asked to move aside even abuse and pass lewd comments to the women working in the shop. The shop owners claim that their business has drastically reduced ever since these labourers begun standing here. “The height of nuisance was when one of the customer was stopped from outside by labourers while going in the changing room of a cloth shop. There have been cases where customers have faced outrage of modesty, sadly no action has been taken, ” the woman said.
It is learnt that several complaints have been filed at the Margao police station but the police sometimes turn up to clear the crowd, which returns the next day. The shop keepers and owners have also said that the police advised them to complaint when any incident happens but they are worried of more trouble from the crowd of unknown labourers.
This daily problem now calls on for independent labourers assembly area in the town or outside so that this problem then we solved once and forever.
The former Chairperson of MMC Savio Coutinho said “I am of the opinion that this labourers standing near the town has to be done away with as it is more a market of labour contractors then that of labourers.
The Town & Country Planning Minister has however taken a inclusive outlook towards the issue and has said that these laborers will be accommodated in somewhere near the old market areas. “The Margao town as we all know is saturated and will burst into a fireball of problems if not tackled now. In this pursuit I plan to speak to a Spanish expert town planner to find solutions in the given scope in Margao,” said Vijai.
He also said that the problems associated to the laborers and also the early morning wholesale fruit and vegetable market of Margao will be acknowledged and a holistic solution is expected to come out.
