TEAM HERALD
PONDA: About 350 vendors from the Ponda market-shed on Wednesday resorted to a ‘sit-in’ agitation in the Ponda Municipal Council (PMC) office premises, to protest against the chief officer’s failure to clear vendors from the footpaths.
Unhappy that the PMC chief officer was on leave, the market vendors directed their anger at Councillor Venkatesh Naik, who had gone to the PMC office, by confining him in the PMC premises for almost two hours.
Later, leader of the market vendors, Kishore Mamlekar, claimed that since the BJP government was supporting the ruling PMC councillors, they would intensify the ‘Mission Footpath Hatav’ agitation till the footpaths are cleared of vendors.
“We will protest in the PMC premises again on Thursday and we have support of five opposing councillors,” he said. Later, Adv Ajitsingh Rane and Swati Kerkar went to the site and supported the protesting vendors.
Some vendors also staged a ‘dharna’ outside the PMC premises and chanted slogans denouncing the BJP government for failing to resolve the sopo tax and footpath issues. A large police force was deployed at the PMC office and surrounding areas to prevent any untoward incident.
Swati Kerkar accused the chief officer of forcing the vendors to agitate. “Before going on leave, the chief officer should have resolved the problem, instead of giving false assurance. He promised to solve the footpath issue and had sought 8 days,” said Kerkar.
It may be recalled that Mamlekar had met the chief officer last week and had requested him to clear the footpaths of vendors and he had asked for eight days to do so but instead he went on leave.
