Plan scheme to relocate displaced meat vendors, high court tells CCP

Panaji: The high court has directed the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) to frame a scheme to rehabilitate the meat and chicken vendors of the city until a new building is constructed.

The scheme must be framed by the CCP within six weeks to fulfil its obligation cast on it by the Corporation Act to make adequate provision for the construction, maintenance, and regulation of public markets and slaughterhouses, the HC said. The division bench, comprising justices M S Karnik and Valmiki Menezes, further directed the CCP to place on record the decision taken on the construction of a new market building and the proposed timelines for its completion by Dec 18.

The meat vendors, represented by advocates Rohit Bras de Sa and Joel Pinto, and other occupants of the building, represented by advocate Abhay Nachinolkar, went to the HC seeking rehabilitation. The CCP has sealed the fish market building for being unsafe, displacing the vendors.

Last week, the CCP began the demolition of the municipal building. “As against 165 fish vendors, 35 fish cutters, and 13 shellfish cleaners who are to be accommodated by the corporation in the temporary shed that is to be constructed next to the building in question, the petitioners are only nine in number,” the high court said. “There is no separate provision in the Corporation Act providing for rehabilitation during the interregnum till the building is reconstructed.”

The HC said that the petitioners cannot claim rehabilitation till the time the building is demolished as a matter of right. But their claims should be given preference subject to them abiding by the terms and conditions prescribed by the corporation, the court added. The petitioners have stated they will not insist on an area equivalent to the one earlier occupied by them.