VASCO: Vasco Saptah fair has allegedly become a ‘stall scam’ with most stall owners subletting their rights to others thereby violating the municipal laws.
Like last year, the Mormugao Municipal Council had assured that no stall owner will be allowed to sublet stalls during the seven-day fair, however, in reality MMC has literary failed to keep the check on subletting and vendors were forced to actually bid high price before the agents to occupy space of their choice.
Surprisingly, the agents subletting the stalls have even fixed the price of stalls according to the size and location of the stall. For instance the official rate for a stall of one square metre is Rs 1,500 for seven days; however, the agents quote nothing less than Rs 8K to Rs 10K. While MMC earns Rs 1,500 per square metre, the agents earn Rs 6K to 8K per square metre.
“I was seeking a stall on St Joseph Vaz Road but the agents quoted Rs 12,000/square metre as the road gets maximum crowd visiting the fair and I finally had to settle with unofficial rate of Rs 8,500/square metre on Swantantra Path lane quoted by the agent plus the official amount of Rs 1,500,” said a vendor having a stall close to Joshi Chawk in Vasco.
One Shaila Vernekar, a vendor selling ladies garments near Joshi Chawk claimed that “there is no rule or system that works during Saptah fair. It is very difficult to get a stall during Saptah without the approval of agents or without any influence. These agents in connivance with MMC reserve stall in their name and then quote price ten times higher than the official licence fee charged by MMC. This year, MMC increased the fees and similarly the agents too have increased their rates,” she said.
Herald investigation team on Monday met several vendors having their stalls on different roads and lanes of Saptah fair and almost all of them aired similar grievance of agent menace. Though some were reluctant to speak to Herald directly, they confessed to our decoy that they paid whopping Rs 40k to 50k to the agents to get a stall on sublet, which in turn, would also reflect on their profit margin. “If we get a stall of 4 square metres by paying 40k to 50k extra than the official fees, then automatically our profit margin goes down and we are then forced to sell our goods at a premium, which is unfair,” said another vendor.
