PANAJI
Stung by the reaction from an otherwise BJP-friendly merchant and trading community, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the ruling party leadership went into damage control mode and announced on Monday the holding in abeyance of the controversial ordinance amending the Goa Municipalities Act.
On Monday, Sawant and other top leaders of the ruling BJP reached out to the All Goa Merchants Association which had on Sunday said it would observe a bandh and shut markets on January 7 to protest against the Ordinance.
Sawant, Urban Development Minister Milind Naik and other BJP party leaders held deliberations with a delegation of the merchants association where the latter vociferously objected to the amendments.
The association is opposing the changes in the law arguing that it will be detrimental to the interests of traders operating as lessees.
The assurance from the Chief Minister that the ordinance will be kept on hold prompted the Merchants Association to call off their January 7 protest action.
Earlier last week, the Sawant led government adopted the Ordinance route to bring in the amendments in a hush-hush move despite the Goa Legislative Assembly already having been summoned to meet on January 25.
The nine-page ordinace published in the official gazette made unauthorized transfer of premises/shops in municipal areas a non-bailable offence and capped the lease renewal term at 10 years.
Rents were also steeply hiked and so were transfer fees.
The Ordinance also ironically added a proviso to regularise "unauthorized transfer" of premises which it also proposes to penalise by criminalising it and making it a non-bailable offence.
The Ordinance promulgated by the Governor provides that sub-letting premises of civic bodies leased shall be punishable with imprisonment for up to three years or fine of Rs 2 lakh or both.
The haste with which the government pushed through these amendments, even resorting to the extraordinary Ordinance route when the Legislature was already summoned, raised questions coming as it did when the terms of most civic bodies have ended and elections are due.
