Margao: The initiative of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) to make the Holy Spirit Church’s feast fair, currently underway at Margao, “plastic free” has yielded desired results.
Almost all the vendors who have occupied the stalls at the fair set up by the MMC in its own land opposite the exhibition ground of the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) have largely done away with the use of plastic.
The MMC had announced that a penalty of Rs 5,000 to be imposed on those vendors found violating the rule.
Apparently conscious of the impending penal action, vendors have voluntarily stopped using plastic carry bags and are instead seen using bags of biodegradable material like paper, etc, to pack their goods. So much so that the vendors are seen removing even the plastic packaging material that comes with the products, before handing over the purchased goods to the consumers.
“This was a move that was long overdue. I hope the MMC extends this idea to ban plastic in municipal markets too,” Succorina Mendes, a consumer told Times of India.
Nevertheless, MMC’s move to shift the main feast fair from the SGPDA ground to the land owned by it nearby, has only aggravated the problem of traffic congestion in the old market area. .
“The MMC needs to come out with a more pragmatic solution to tide over this problem,” Meena Souza, another consumer, remarked.