PANJIM: The Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP’s) Panjim market is facing 20 years of neglect.
Some roof sheets are missing, many places are filthy and with just two functional toilets, it’s agony for the 43 shops owners and hundreds of small shops owners on the first floor and the vegetable and fruit vendors and market goers.
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There is all round leakage in the market, flooding of the basement car park which had abandoned cars, and lack of basic amenities. For market goers and vendors going to the Panjim market is like ‘capital punishment’. Most importantly the market instead of generating revenue for the CCP, is bleeding the civic body.
Till date, the market vendors have not signed lease agreement with the CCP, as a result none of the shop owners pay rent and electricity charges. In the past, the CCP had disconnected power supply for non-payment of pending charges but later on CCP cleared the arrears of Rs 5 crore to the Electricity Department.
Panjim Market Tenants Association president Rajendra Dhamaskar said that the CCP earlier gave them a proposal to sign leave and licence agreement. “We studied it and since we were deemed tenants, we said we will not sign leave and licence agreement,” Dhamaskar said, adding that the CCP later gave them lease agreement for an initial period of 30 years and to be extended thereafter.
Dhamaskar said that the shopkeepers agreed to sign the lease agreement. But in the meantime, the CCP stopped accepting rent paid by some of the shopkeepers, who also opposed revised rates.
Association general secretary Gregory Fernandes complained that there was only one security guard for the whole market. “We are asking to deploy more security guards in view of incidents of thefts in the past. We had also requested the CCP to install CCTV cameras in the market. There are no proper lighting inside the market which is plunged into darkness during night. There is also no provision for drinking water facility in the market,” said Fernandes.
He further said that sewage water was entering into some of the shops and over six months, the toilet is under repairs.
CCP councillor and market committee chairman Bento Lorena told O Heraldo that “new toilet is being built by demolishing the old one. It will be ready within a month”.
Referring to the damaged roof sheets and also incident of sheets blowing away due to gusty winds on July 25, Lorena informed that these roof sheets were installed in 2003 and they were damaged. There were plans to replace the sheets through Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) but the process was delayed. The CCP will now replace them after monsoon subsides, he said.
Lorena further said that the CCP had requested traders to sign leave and licence agreement. Three meetings were also held with trader/tenants, who insisted on lease agreement. We could not sign lease agreement with them due to complications since the CCP had no complete ownership rights. Now all formalities had been to transfer the land to the CCP, and once it is done, the file will be sent to the government for vetting.
CCP Mayor Rohit Monserrate said that “We will now temporarily replace the roof sheets. But in the long run, the corporation will replace the entire sheets by spending around Rs two crore. The proposal will be placed before the CCP meeting and approved.”
Monserrate said that currently, only vendors are paying sopo which was around Rs 10 lakh every month. But the CCP is losing money. “When we are going to spend Rs two crore to replace roof sheets means, we are losing Rs two crore worth development works.
The Mayor hoped that the vendors will sign the lease agreement soon so that the CCP gets money to refurnish the market.
