VASCO
In a major relief for Khaje vendors at the ongoing Damodar Saptah fair, the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) on Friday announced an 84 percent reduction in the stall charges after the issue was raised in the Goa Assembly and taken up with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
MMC Chief Officer Siddhivinayak Naik said the decision was taken following directions from higher authorities after local MLAs intervened.
“We have an annual Damodar Saptah fair for seven days that will end on August 5. The Vasco Saptah fair is one of the biggest sources of revenue for the MMC. We provide a large number of civic facilities to the stalls, and had issued a public notice for the stalls with detailed specifications, including rates,” said Naik.
He explained that MMC had initially fixed the stall rate at ₹1,500 per square metre, with an additional ₹1,000 sanitation charge. A single vendor could apply for a maximum of three stalls. Furniture stalls had separate charges.
“For example, if a Khaje stall was 8 metres long and 4 metres wide, the total area would be 32 square metres, and the rent would be ₹48,000. However, the Khajekars argued that they should be charged ₹1,000 per running metre, as was done last year, and were willing to pay only ₹8,000,” said Naik.
He said there are around 17 to 20 Khaje stalls at the fair. “If we give each stall a discount of ₹40,000, the council will lose almost ₹7 lakh in revenue from these stalls alone.”
Naik said that when the Khajekars first approached him, he had declined to reduce the charges as he was bound by the terms of the public notice.
“I told the delegation that I could not help them because the rates had been notified publicly. But the matter was escalated, discussed in the Assembly, and later taken up with the Chief Minister by Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar and Vasco MLA Krishna Salkar. Following their intervention, it was decided to revert to last year’s rates,” he said.
“We will now stick to the revised rates for the Khaje stalls as per directions received. To make up for the revenue shortfall, we will have to explore other avenues and work on creating additional sources of income. As officers, we have to follow instructions from higher authorities,” Naik added.
