the goan I network
MAPUSA
Call it gross irresponsibility or just plain inefficiency.
For almost 19 years the civic authorities in Mapusa have neither collected rent of 34 shops in the municipal market nor bothered to rectify the errors carried out by their predecessors while auctioning the shops.
The shops housed on the first floor opposite the vegetable market were constructed and first taken up for auction in 1999 and some shops allotted to lessees then. The remaining shops were re-auctioned in 2012-13 and allotted to the respective lessees.
The Mapusa Municipal Council had then failed to provide basic amenities like electricity and water connection to the shops but auctioned it to the lessees on “as is where is” basis.
While a couple of lessees later managed to take power connection and began operating their business in the premises, most of the shops remained closed due to lack of power connection and the civic body’s obdurate stand.
Every time the lessees approached the municipality for NOC to take power connection the civic officials asked them to first clear the arrears of rent which had accumulated to more than Rs 1 lakh per shop.
Besides failing to provide power connection, the municipality has also failed to take action against lessees of shops from the ground floor, who had converted their mezzanine into separate shops.
“The civic body has failed to put their own house in order indicating gross negligence and laziness on its part. They have not been collecting rent for the last 19 years causing huge revenue loss to the municipality,” said Vikas Mahale, a lessee of two units in the building.
He said the civic body has failed to provide basic facilities like electricity and water connection and also failed to maintain cleanliness around the shops.
“If someone wants to start a restaurant or a beauty parlour he cannot do so as there is no provision made for water connection and drainage,” he said.
When the issue of the shops was raised in the ordinary council meeting on Tuesday, Chairperson, Ryan Braganza said that there were some serious issues in the allotment process by the earlier council and he could do very little about it.
Intervening in the discussion senior councillor Sandeep Falari said it was of no use in pointing fingers and the best the council could do was to rectify the faults and find a solution to the problem.
“We can’t blame the earlier council for the wrongs that were done in the past. It reflects badly on this council. The functioning of the civic administration is a continuous process and we need to find a way out,” Falari said.
Clearly, the civic officials and the elected council members have failed to apply their mind and resolve the problem of the lessees of the concerned shops.
In the bargain, the municipality has lost revenue in lakhs if not crores of rupees for the last so many years.
Most councillors were of the opinion that the municipality should ignore the pending rent and allow the lessees to start business.
“These premises have been built and have remained unoccupied for very long time. If we allow them to function now the council will get some revenue,” said Rajsingh Rane, councillor.
Councillor Tushar Tople also said that the council should forfeit the arrears of rent accumulated over the years and allow the lessees to start business.
“We are partly to be blamed. We have erred in failing to provide necessary facilities to the lessees,” Tople argued.
Mahale said that in 1999 he bagged the allotment for two shops at Rs 2,200 per month for each unit but the same if allotted today each shop would have fetched the council a princely amount of Rs 12,000 per month.
