MARGAO
In an interesting development, the Margao Municipal sopo contract auction could not take place on Wednesday after the civic body received a lone bid.
While the Margao Municipal Chief Officer Rohit Kadam pointed out that the civic body would refer the matter to the Director of Municipal Administration on how to go about with the job, the lone bidder Damodar Naik wondered why the civic body has denied him the right to collect sopo in the Margao Municipal jurisdiction.
Sources in the know informed that the MMC has invited bids from prospective sopo contractors for the collection of sopo by fixing an upset price of around Rs 60-odd lakh.
Accordingly, Damodar Naik had submitted his bid by fulfilling all the conditions, including the condition on experience.
Naik slammed the municipal decision to refer the matter to the DMA, pointing out that MMC’s game plan is to deny him the contract by hook or crook. “I had met with all the conditions set by the civic body. However, the Chief Officer says the matter will be referred to the DMA,” he lamented.
Chief Officer Rohit Kadam has said that his office is referring the matter to the DMA for an opinion since the auction received a lone bid.
“The bidder had met the requirements, but since it was a lone bid, it has been decided to forward the matter to the DMA for opinion,” he said adding that the MMC will collect the sopo fees departmentally from July 1.
