MARGAO
The Margao Wholesale fish market association has demanded the immediate suspension of the SGPDA member secretary for having failed to put the sopo collection fees system in place despite the High Court directions.
Member Secretary Ranjit Borkar, however, refuted the allegations made by association president M Ibrahim that sopo fees collected on Saturday and Sunday are yet to be deposited with the PDA.
He said the allegations made by the association are false and baseless, saying the sopo fees have been deposited by the authorized sopo fees collection persons with the SGDPA.
“Anyone can come and check the records and details of the collected fees deposited with the SGPDA”, Borkar added.
Earlier addressing the media, the Wholesale fish market association president sought to blame the PDA officials for the mess created in the wholesale fish market.
“Today morning, I called up the SGDPA member secretary to find out about the amount of fee collection in the last three days, only to be told that the fees have not been deposited with the PDA. We would like to know the fate of the sopo fee collection when the traders had been paying Rs 500 per hour for conducting business in the market”, he said.
He also questioned the rationale of the SGPDA in appointing drivers and others to undertake the sopo collection in the wholesale fish market when there are honest PDA officials capable of doing the work of sopo collection efficiently.
Saying that the SGPDA appointed staff on a Saturday to specifically collect the sopo fees in the market, Ibrahim demanded to know how come the PDA could appoint the person on a holiday.
The SGDPA member secretary, however, refuted the allegations, saying that the recruitment of a supervisor has been done as per the laid down norms.
