Ajgaonkar threatens to reveal names of hike beneficiaries
BJP leader and leader of the Gandhi Market Vendors Association, Manohar Ajgaonkar, along with ST vendors protesting over the sopo fee hike.
MARGAO
After bakers selling the humble pao, the sopo collection fee row in the commercial capital has hit the wholesale vegetable and fruit vendors from the Gandhi market operating at Pimpalkatta, with leader of the Gandhi Market Vendors Association, Manohar Ajgaonkar, claiming that the sopo contractor has hiked the sopo fee from Rs 50 to Rs 400 per wholesale vendor.
The vendors have since stopped payment of the hiked sopo fee and have now shifted their operations to the Gandhi market.
At a media briefing, Ajgaonkar said he would disclose the names of the beneficiaries of the illegal collection of sopo fees if Margao MLA and PWD Minister Digambar Kamat, BJP president Damu Naik and Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Naik failed to rein in the new sopo fee contractor.
He also raised questions over the presence of Margao police officers at Pimpalkatta in the wee hours of the morning to stop the wholesale vendors from doing business on the Pimpalkatta road, demanding to know why the police did not act with the same alacrity against the illegal vendors swarming along the Margao station road every evening.
Addressing the media, Ajgaonkar said vendors from the Gandhi market, mostly hailing from the ST community, had been selling their vegetable and fruit produce on the Pimpalkatta road in the wee hours of the day and stopping the activity by 8 am, as per the permission granted by Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and the Margao Municipal Council. “How come the sopo contractor is asking the vendors to pay Rs 400 when they have all along been paying Rs 50?” he said, while demanding to know who has authorised the new contractor to effect a fee hike.
Saying the vendors have refused to pay the new amount, he pointed out that he would disclose the beneficiaries of the sopo fee hike in the next two days. “This is nothing but extortion by the new contractor. Maintain the status quo or I will be forced to unveil the names of the beneficiaries of the sopo fee hike,” he added.
To a question, Ajgaonkar said that he would unveil the future course of action after waiting for the next two days for the MLA and the MMC to act.
