Team Herald
VASCO: At least 200 fruit and vegetable vendors met Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) Chief Officer demanding place for them to conduct business.
However, the Mormugao Municipal Council has denied any kind of help for the vendors as they have no permission to operate at the designated market places.
Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes said that the municipality has taken up the anti-encroachment drive on footpaths to prevent any untoward incidents.
During the anti-encroachment drive, the municipality learnt that over 90 percent of the 308 fruit and vegetable vendors at the market and along F L Gomes road in Vasco are operating illegally without any paper work.
The MMC team has completed its checking of all the vendors and has recovered Rs 8 lakh on the very first day against the non-renewed licences of various vendors.
The vendors who did not renew the trade licences have asked for 15 days time to clear all outstanding dues. However, the likelihood of the ones having no licences getting place is very less.
Parshuram Sonurlekar, an NGO member working in the town, said that the illegalities had reached to such an extent that they were about to file a Public Interest Litigation.
“The illegalities have to be dealt with an iron fist and the action has to continue. Action today and ignoring the violations tomorrow is going to double up the illegalities,” Parshuram said.
He alleged that the municipality has been deliberately turning a nelson’s eye to the markets violations.
The action has come at a time when the MMC plans to shift all these traders into a new space opposite the Salgaonkar office in the town. Only the renewed valid licence holder will be shifted to the new spot, MMC officials said.
