MARGAO
The battle to control sopo fee collection outside the wholesale fish market has intensified with the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) knocking the doors of the Fatorda police to stop the Margao Municipal Council-appointed sopo contractor from collecting sopo fees from vendors on the paved area outside the market complex.
At stake is the lucrative revenue by way of sopo fees, which neither the SGPDA nor the MMC is willing to lose. The battle has also brought to the fore the dispute over the land in question, especially the strip of paved land located outside the wholesale fish market and which is presently being used by local traditional fishermen to sell their produce. This strip of land has also come in handy for fish transporting vehicles for parking.
In his complaint to the Fatorda police, SGPDA Member Secretary Sheikh Ali requested the police not to allow the MMC sopo contractor from collection of sopo from the property of SGPDA wholesale fish market. In fact, the SGPDA Member Secretary urged the police to allow the person hired by the PDA to collect the sopo charges from this area as this Authority owns the land of wholesale fish market which is under construction.
“The area is reserved by this Authority for parking of vehicles of fish vendors and general public. This Authority is collecting sopo from wholesale fish market departmentally from the beginning,” Ali said, as he wondered how the Municipal contractor can collect the charges from this area illegally without intimating this Authority. The PDA Member Secretary has enclosed the approved plan of the wholesale fish market for the reference of the police.
“The SGPDA owns the wholesale fish market in the area within the compound wall and the area paved outside the compound wall till the road. The property is surveyed in Chalta No 1, 2 and 3 of PT Sheet No 70,71,102 and 103 along the Margao-Seraulim road,” the PDA stated.
The PDA added: “The sopo contractor appointed by the Margao Municipal Council is collecting sopo in the parking area of SGPDA wholesale fish market without obtaining permission from the Authority, causing inconvenience to this Authority by the unauthorised collection of the sopo fees.”
Copy of the police complaint was shared by SGPDA officials with the Margao Municipal Council for information and action.
Margao Municipal Council officials, sources are trying to find out over the jurisdiction of the paved parking area outside the wholesale fish market. An official pointed out that the issue can be resolved amicably once and for all with a demarcation of the disputed land located outside the compound wall of the wholesale fish market.
With the PDA lodging an official police complaint, all eyes are now focussed on the wholesale fish market and how the Fatorda police will go about resolving the issue at hand.
