PANJIM: Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on Wednesday assured a delegation of vendors that their stalls situated outside the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Bambolim will not be demolished till the government arrives at an appropriate decision.
The deputy collector last week issued an order asking stall owners and fruit vendors sitting outside GMC to vacate immediately by citing 2018 order.
The then deputy collector and the SDO Panjim in his order had stated that the vendors had encroached in the government property and erected structures without obtaining permission from the competent authorities and carried out commercial activities illegally in the government property.
A delegation of vendors mostly from Sant Andre and Santa Cruz constituencies along with their MLAs Francis Silveira and Tony Fernandes, BJP leader Ramrao Wagh and Curca-Bambolim-Talaulim panchayat members Sidhesh Naik, Diona Korgaonkar and Marvin Gonsalves met the Chief Minister and appealed to him not to evict them during monsoon and particularly during the current pandemic.
When contacted, Santa Cruz MLA Tony Fernandes said that he has requested the Chief Minister to protect the livelihood of Goan vendors and to relocate them in a proper manner although they had encroached on the government land. He said that this was not the right time to evict them and that the government should help Goan vendors on humanitarian grounds.
According to Fernandes, the Chief Minister has assured them that he will soon convene a meeting of all concerned officials and rehabilitate them systematically.
