MARGAO
The New Year has dawned, but an old, contentious issue has come back to haunt the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) “ how many more months, if not years, will it take for the planning body to float a sopo collection tender for the wholesale fish market and plug the revenue leakage?
Indeed, SGPDA Chairman, MLA Krishna Salkar, along with Digambar Kamat, Vijai Sardesai, and Member Secretary Sheikh Ali, will have to answer a simple question “ why has it taken months and months for the PDA to float the tender to appoint the sopo collection contractor to collect sopo fees in the wholesale fish market when the PDA’s own calculations suggest that the departmental collection of sopo fees has resulted in huge revenue leakage?
Consider this. The SGPDA, under the chairmanship of Salkar, had floated a tender more than a year ago, around August-September 2023, calling for bids for the sopo collection fee contract, pegged at Rs 3.88 crore. This implies the PDA was anticipating a monthly revenue of Rs 32 lakh by way of sopo collection from the wholesale fish market, when the departmental collection of monthly sopo, sources say, had hardly crossed the Rs 15 lakh figure on average.
It’s another matter that the sopo tender floated in 2023 could not be taken forward due to a contentious clause mandating the bidders to possess 10 years of experience in the fishing business. Though the government had finally got the contentious fishing experience clause deleted in December 2023, the sopo tender could not move forward further for reasons best known to the PDA members and officials.
Since December 2023, however, the PDA has not floated a fresh tender, raising questions as to why the SGPDA has not moved with alacrity to appoint a sopo fee collector in the wholesale fish market and plug the revenue leakage.
SGPDA decision goes abegging
Hopes were raised on August 8, 2024, that the sopo tender would finally be floated within two months, paving the way for the collection of sopo fees by a contractor. In fact, after the August 8 PDA meeting, PDA Chairman Salkar, in the presence of PDA member Digambar Kamat and Member Secretary Sheikh Ali, had told the media that the wholesale fish market sopo tender would be floated within two months.
The PDA’s decision assumed significance and had come against the backdrop of the issue figuring in the monsoon session of the Goa Legislative Assembly.
Sadly, it’s now exactly five months since the PDA Chairman unveiled plans to float the tender, but a sopo contractor has yet to be appointed. When 'The Goan' called up a PDA official to shed light on the delay in floating the tender for the last five months, the official was quick to reply, saying the tender documents are all ready and the tender will be floated after placing the proposal before the Authority meeting, raising a pertinent question about the delay in floating the sopo tender.
****
As sopo 'battle' continues, additional collector intervenes
As the battle to control the sopo collection fees between the SGPDA and Margao Municipal Council (MMC) outside the wholesale fish market showed no sign of abating, South Goa Additional Collector Srinet Kothwale descended outside the wholesale fish market on Thursday.
South Goa Additional Collector Srinet Kothwale and Margao Municipal Chief Officer Melvyn Vaz take stock of the ground reality outside the wholesale fish market, the bone of contention between the SGPDA and MMC over the collection of sopo revenue. Santosh Mirajkar
Kothwale’s agenda at the wholesale fish market was clear “ to bring about a truce between the SGPDA and MMC over the sopo collection via legal means.
While Margao Municipal Chief Officer Melvyn Vaz made his presence felt at the wholesale fish market to attend the meeting called by the Additional Collector, the SGPDA Member Secretary Sheikh Ali was conspicuous by his absence, having sent his representative to the meeting.
Additional Collector Srinet Kothwale later told 'The Goan' at the site that he had called for a meeting with officials of the SGPDA and MMC in view of the dispute over the sopo collection fee by the sopo collectors appointed by the two authorities.
“I have come here to resolve the issue amicably between the MMC and SGPDA. I have inspected the paved area outside the compound wall of the wholesale fish market, where fish vendors are doing business, and which is now the bone of contention between the SGPDA and the MMC,” Kothwale said.
He added: “I think the issue can be resolved by holding a demarcation of the land acquired by the SGPDA for the wholesale fish market. The demarcation will clarify whether the paved area outside the wholesale fish market is owned by the SGPDA or forms part of the road-widening area belonging to the PWD.”
Sources in the know informed that another round of meetings between the two agencies will take place in the South District Collectorate on Monday to discuss and resolve the sopo collection issue outside the wholesale fish market.
