TEAM HERALD
PONDA: Around 150 SGPDA market vendors observed a market bandh at Usgao on Thursday to protest against the market’s dilapidated condition. They gave the SGPDA one month to repair the building, failing which they would agitate again.
The fish vendors also supported them as their own shed was in the same condition.
According to the vendors, the market was constructed in 1994. Since then, no maintenance or major repairs have been carried out. The sheets forming the roof of the building are broken, resulting in severe leakages every monsoon. Water would also seep into the walls and add to the entire structure’s weight. The cement and steel of the RCC columns, beams and slabs are rusted and cracked.
The vendors had repeatedly demanded the SGPDA to reconstruct or repair the building, to no avail. They stated the Usgao Ganjem panchayat could not interfere as the SGDPA possessed the market. The chief town planner had sent a letter to the SGDPA on November 5, 2014 to appoint a consultant to reconstruct the market. So far, nothing had happened.
At present, there are 48 shops in the building. Around one hundred vendors operate from outside the premises. Wednesday and Sunday are the market days.
When contacted, Ponda MLA and SGDPA member Lavoo Mamledar stated he inspected the market two years ago and asked the TCP authorities to repair or reconstruct it in the interest of the vendors, and so that the government would get revenue in the form of Sopo. He appealed to the member secretary of SGPDA and the TCP dept to look into the matter.
