vendors selling their wares at siolim market have been complaining about the inconvenience caused to the local vendors in the weekly market, which has been held every wednesday since Portuguese times, as there are no proper facilities for the vendors in the market .
The market, which fills up for half a day every Wednesday, has vendors selling their traditional vegetables from villages like Morjim, Mandrem and Chopdem-Agarwada and Assagao and siolim and the local women and men from nearby Pernem taluka. the market vendors also sell boiled rice , which is in great demand among Christians in the area, which is available for sale in large quantities every Wednesday, so Christians from other parts of Bardez also flock to this market to buy poke.
In addition, local sweets like Sanna, Bebinca, Dodol and Doce are also available at the local market. Meanwhile, for the last 60 years, since the Portuguese rule, the weekly market which is only half a day every Wednesday, has a turnover of thousands of rupees and the the local Panchayat body collects sopo (tax) from the marketers every week as per the rules, but the vendors have been complaining that there are no facilities in this area.
“The traffic on the main road has been endangering the lives of marketers who sell their wares in the scorching sun on the side of the main road, and an accident can lead to loss of life,” said a local vendor another local Gracie D’Souza, a veteran of the market, said that the Panchayat office has been collecting a huge sum of money from them but has done nothing to improve the quality of the market
Chandrakant Parsekar, a hotelier who has been selling tea in the area for the last 50 years, said that the men and women of Baazar have to use a hill located at a distance of 500 meters for answering nature’s call as there is no facility for simple urinals. He also demanded that the local Panchayat panchayat body should provide at least diagnostic facilities to the vendors before any untoward incident takes place in the area as there is no Goa left at present.
it may be recalled that the Marna siolim Panchayat Deputy Sarpanch William Fernandes had raised the issue of marketers in this regard.
“as there are no proper facilities to the people we will try to provide at least some basic diagnostic facilities for marketers” said Fernandes