MARGAO
Missed deadlines, revenue leakages, and so on have come to haunt the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) yet again, as the PDA has failed to keep the date to float the long-delayed tender for the collection of sopo fees at the wholesale fish market by January 31, 2025.
The long delay in outsourcing the sopo fee collection in Goa’s only wholesale fish market, managed and operated by the SGPDA, has only raised eyebrows and fuelled speculations, especially when the departmental collection of sopo fees is pegged at around Rs 12 lakh a month on average, while the SGPDA has been eyeing a projected monthly revenue of Rs 30-odd lakh.
This has only raised questions about whether there is revenue leakage from the sopo collection and the delay in plugging the leakage by outsourcing the fee collection in the market.
The delay in floating the tender and awarding the contract to the highest bidder, sources say, is all the more deafening when the issue of sopo fee collection had repeatedly figured in almost every session of the Goa Legislative Assembly over the last two years.
Consider this: After his appointment as the SGPDA Chairman post-2022 election, incumbent Chairman, MLA Krishna Salkar, had assured in November 2022 that the PDA would take all necessary steps to float the wholesale fish market tender by January 2023.
Many believed that the SGPDA would finally appoint a new contractor for the sopo fee collection from the wholesale fish market for the new financial year 2023-24. However, the tender could not see the light of day before January 31, 2023.
The issue figured in the 2023 monsoon session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, with the government providing a reply that the tender would be floated soon. It was only around August-September 2023 that the SGPDA floated the tender, raising hopes of an early outsourcing of the sopo fee collection.
However, the tender did not have a smooth sailing as the process soon hit a block over the contentious clause that the bidders participating in the tender should have a minimum of 10 years of fishing experience. After the PDA was flooded with queries over the contentious clause, the matter was forwarded to the government for relaxation, but the government’s nod to relax the clause came only in December, causing further delay.
Since December 2023, the SGPDA has failed to float the wholesale fish market sopo collection tender before the issue again found mention in the Goa Legislative Assembly during the monsoon session in 2024, prompting TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane to make a promise for the early e-tendering of the sopo fee collection.
Against this background, the SGPDA meeting held in August last year had resolved to float the wholesale fish market tender within two months. Sadly, the tender could not take place on the grounds that the SGPDA had requested the PWD to re-assess the revenue generation in the wholesale fish market.
When the issue again figured at the December 2023 meeting of the SGPDA, members resolved to float the e-tender before January 31, 2024, a promise which has gone unfulfilled so far.
Chairman cites administrative issues for delay
SGPDA chairman, MLA Krishna Salkar, on Wednesday conceded that the PDA has failed to float the e-tender for the wholesale fish market sopo collection before January 31.
He, however, hastened to add that the PDA is in the process of floating the e-tender in the next couple of days.
When 'The Goan' called up the SGPDA Chairman to shed light on the delay in floating the tender to outsource the wholesale fish market sopo fee collection, Salkar said the tender could not be floated due to some administrative issues. “The SGPDA Member Secretary Sheikh Ali has been transferred, and a new Member Secretary has come in his place. The tender is almost ready, and the same will be floated in the next few days,” he said.
This is not the first time that the SGPDA Chairman has handed over promises to float the wholesale fish market tender, but in vain.
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Fish market project 'complete', but no word on inauguration
MARGAO: After rushing with the ongoing work on the wholesale fish market in an apparent bid to complete the project for commissioning on Republic Day last month, nothing has been heard about the inauguration of the re-developed Goa’s only wholesale fish market at Margao.
The redeveloped wholesale fish market.
While the GSIDC has claimed to have completed work on the project, the government and the SGPDA have yet to fix the schedule for the market inauguration.
Sources, however, wondered whether the government is going slow on the inauguration of the re-developed market project since the main component of the project, the cold storage unit meant for the traditional Goan fishermen, is yet to be completed.
Also, the authorities are yet to put a firm system in place to handle the leachate generated in the wholesale fish market, as a result of which the leachate and wastewater are finding their way into the stormwater nullahs before flowing into the river Sal.
