the goan I network
MAPUSA
Urban Development Minister Milind Naik on Friday admitted on the floor of the House the existence of illegal practice of sub-letting of shops to third party in the municipal markets, which has been going on rampantly and promised to find a way out of the mess.
“The illegal sub-letting of shops to third parties had been happening all over Goa. We are trying to find a solution to the issue by taking all the legislators wherever there are municipalities into confidence,” Naik said.
The Urban Development Minister was responding to a query of Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida seeking details on the number of immovable properties in Mormugao Municipal Council.
Naik said that there were several cases where the original leases with the municipality have sub-let their premises to a third party without informing the municipality.
He said this practice was going on in all the civic bodies in the State and stressed on the needed to stop the illegality once for all.
According to the Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, the only way to rectify the problem was to amend the Municipal Act.
He said ‘X’ person who is the original leasee after five years sells the shop to ‘Y’ without any agreement and without informing the council and later ‘Y’ sub-lets to ‘Z’.
“This particular practice has to be curtailed as the municipality is losing heavy revenue. The only way to do it is to amend the Municipal Act,” Kamat said.
Acknowledging the illegalities happening in the municipal markets vis-Ã -vis the shops, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said many Goans take shops on lease from the municipalities and sub-let it to migrants.
The Urban Development Minister assured the House to take adequate steps to put a stop such practice.
He also informed the House that most of the shops in several municipalities were being run by outsiders.
“100 percent of the shops are being run by outsiders in Mormugao Municipal Council,” Naik said in reply to Vasco MLA.
