Vasco vendors allege abuse by Mormugao Municipal Council

VASCO

: Reacting strongly to the

Mormugao

Municipal Council’s (

MMC

) crack down on illegal encroachments, Vasco’s vegetable and fruit vendors shut down the market on Monday morning alleging harassment by the authorities and resorted sloganeering.


With tension in the market area increasing, police were called in to diffuse the situation.

“We only extend the shade to protect our vegetables from sunlight. Municipality workers unnecessarily seized our material on the pretext of encroachment,” a vegetable vendor Prashant Naik said, while fruit vendor Sushant Bandekar said, “We pay the council regularly. We follow all their rules and yet we are being harassed.”

Later, the vendors met chief officer MMC Agnelo Fernandes.

“We have been asked to take action against encroachment by the court and the higher authorities. It is our job to ensure that nobody encroaches on roads and footpaths,” Fernandes said.

Fernandes said that Vasco traffic police had written to the MMC complaining about the encroachments saying they were resulting in people parking wrongly, traffic jams and accidents.

The vendors said they would meet the traffic police. “If the people park wrongly or cause jams, it their mistake, not ours,” the vendors said.

Fernandes told the vendors that if his staff harassed them they should complain to him.