MARGAO
After the formalin row, the SGPDA is now facing another challenge “ to reign in on the mafia involved in denying the planning body revenue from the wholesale fish market and to crack a whip against migrant vendors.
Otherwise, consider this: The total number of fish cutters registered with the SGPDA is put at around six, with each of these paying the PDA a monthly fee of Rs 1,000 each. Added together, the revenue earned from these fish cutters works out to Rs 6000 .
The ground reality, however, sounds different. While there are only six registered fish cutters with the SGPDA, there are many who do business clandestinely.
PDA officials have put the total number of unregistered fish cutters in the wholesale fish market to around 40.
PDA officials say that the authority will earn a revenue of Rs 40,000 from these fish cutters every month if they are all registered.
Questions are asked in the corridors of the PDA who’s behind the rising number of unregistered fish cutters in the wholesale fish market and who are the people who are part of the mafia to pocket the revenue that ought to have gone to the PDA.
The issue, sources said, had figured at the adjourned meeting of the SGPDA held earlier this week, with members demanding that either the unregistered fish cutters should be evicted from the wholesale fish market or they register with the authority upon the payment of the monthly fees.
A PDA official in the know said that no fish cutter can carry out business in the wholesale market without registration with the body. “Paying fees to the sopo contractor is another thing. But, before paying the sopo,
the fish cutters should first register with the PDA,” the official added.
Dozens of migrant vendors doing brisk retail business in the wholesale fish market have come under the scanner of the PDA. PDA officials now suspect that the migrant vendors have a field day in the market with patronage from vested interests despite a ban on retail trade in the market.
Commenting on the loss of revenue to the SGPDA, an official said the authority should lay down the guidelines at the time of auctioning the sopo contract.
“When PDA is hit by revenue deficit with the number of applications for development permissions coming down drastically in recent times, strict guidelines should be laid down to plug the revenue leakage in the wholesale fish market,” the official added.
