PANJIM: The ordinary meeting of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) on Friday turned stormy over the issue of alleged sopo (market tax) scam and the extension of contract towards collection of pay parking fees.
Councillors including from the ruling bench said that they have been called by the public as ‘corrupt’ ever since the sopo scam came to light and demanded a thorough probe to unearth the scam which is believed to be running into lakhs of rupees.
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It is pertinent to note that Councillor Uday Madkaikar had shared a 27-second long video with mediapersons, wherein he is seen confronting reportedly a CCP appointed worker for collecting money in the name of sopo from vendors without giving them paper-receipt.
Madkaikar submitted paper receipts issued to vendors in the last few days by CCP appointed staff as ‘evidence’ to the CCP Commissioner Clen Madeira alleging that CCP’s rightful revenue was being ‘robbed’ by the staff in a different way even after bringing the sopo scam to light.
Senior Councillor Surendra Furtado said that if the sopo money collected was being deposited to the Corporation treasury by the supervisor concerned then why didn’t the cashier seek to know about the source of money as it was deposited without any copy of receipts/records.
CCP Commissioner Clen Madeira and CCP Mayor Rohit Monserrate assured the councillors to carry out a detailed inquiry in the matter and also agreed to consider their suggestion to probe former mayors, supervisors, chairman of past market committee.
The Mayor informed that the CCP will float a tender in the next 10 days to outsource sopo collection.
Uday Madkaikar and CCP Commissioner had a heated argument over the issue of the extension of contract towards collection of pay parking fees.
“In the confirmation of the meeting, the Commissioner stated that I suggested an extension of the pay parking contract, this is absolutely rubbish as I never gave any such suggestion. He gave an extension to pay parking contractor without following due procedure. I will file a complaint with the Vigilance Department to probe this and demand the Chief Secretary to suspend him immediately,” Madkaikar said.
The CCP Commissioner clarified that he issued the extension order based on the resolution taken on January 27, 2023 in the Council meeting.
