Margao: Women vendors from Quepem, Sanguem and Canacona who sell locally grown vegetables and wild tubers along the roadside opposite the South Goa district police headquarters remain in limbo, with no eviction for now but no permanent space to trade either.The vendors, many of whom have relied on the roadside market for decades, arrive before daybreak with produce grown on their small plots or foraged from the hillsides. With no stalls or shelter, they face the daily uncertainty of whether their produce will fetch a fair price or whether municipal staff or police will ask them to clear the area.The issue has resurfaced in recent weeks after PWD minister and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat assured the vendors that they would not be evicted until an alternative arrangement was made. Sources within the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) said the assurance has prompted civic officials to proceed cautiously on the issue.The vendors have previously been asked by police or civic staff to vacate but have approached Kamat for intervention. He has repeatedly stepped in to defuse such stand-offs and has spoken of identifying a centrally located, dedicated space for them. However, no such space has been finalised.Kamat said the issue should be viewed as one concerning agro-based livelihoods. “What is important to note is that these vendors grow their own vegetables and fruits in villages such as Morpirla and bring the produce to the commercial capital precisely because it fetches them a better rate,” he said.“If they do not get a rate for the produce, they may give up agriculture altogether,” Kamat said, adding that he would ask MMC to identify a centrally located space where vendors from the hinterland talukas could sell their fruit and vegetable produce.
