MARGAO
The South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) has decided to tender the sopo collection in the wholesale fish market, but has not yet set the date for doing so, even as PDA member and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai on Wednesday demanded that the market should be either regulated or shifted to any of the neighbouring constituencies.
Briefing the media after the SGPDA meeting, Chairman, MLA Wilfred D’Sa, said the PDA has stopped the services of the existing contractor, who was collecting the sopo and looking after the maintenance after paying around Rs three lakh to the PDA.
Pointing out that a PDA team deputed at the SGPDA has mopped up revenue to the tune of around Rs 11 lakh in August, D’Sa said it has now been decided that the team will pay Rs seven lakh every month to the PDA after deducting the cost of manpower and maintenance. “Based on this figure, the PDA will float a tender to appoint a new contractor,” he added.
D’Sa further said it has been decided to maintain the PDA retail market departmentally and stop the services of the contractor with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, Sardesai said the wholesale fish market has become an eyesore in his constituency, adding that it has not benefitted Fatordekars in any way. On the contrary, he said the market has raised a stink in the Madel area, with people complaining of the stinking environment around the market.
“The market has become an extortion joint for many. The PDA should either put the market in order by regulating the activity or Fatordekars will agitate to get it shifted out the constituency,” he said.
“Vested interests used to say that I have an interest in the market, but today I am demanding the shifting of the market. I have developed the wholesale fish market road and carried out the illumination. But the market continues to be an eyesore, with complaints of extortion doing the rounds almost every day,” he added.
