Team Herald
PANJIM: In what could spell trouble for the former Commissioner of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) Deepak Desai, Mayor Surendra Furtado has alleged that the former misled the High Court of Bombay at Goa over action taken against illegal occupants at Panjim municipal market.
In his letter to present Commissioner Ajit Roy seeking to expedite disposal of cases, Furtado pointed at various anomalies into submissions by Desai. “It is stated that the CCP had issued total 471 notices to illegal occupants. Out of these, 223 notices are disposed off… Out of these, 112 parties have filed appeals before the District Court. Then what further action is taken by the ex-Commissioner in respect of the remaining 111 cases who have not appealed against his eviction order,” the Mayor said in the letter to Roy.
He sought clarity from the former CCP official about his further submission to the court that after April 2017, the Commissioner disposed 25 cases out of the pending 148 cases.
As per records available with CCP, 37 shops were sealed in 2010 since these were found closed, although allotted. Of these, 14 shops were unsealed thereafter. “In these circumstances, the Commissioner Deepak Desai has given a false statement before the High Court in para 7 of his affidavit that he has sealed 22 shops in the municipal market and they are in the custody of the CCP and thus misleading the court,” the Mayor alleged.
As per the order on July 31, 2017, the high court, while extending the time for taking action had ordered to submit a progress report every three months. Furtado has thus requested the sitting Commissioner to bring to the fore the former Commissioner’s ‘anomalies and false statement’ while submitting the progress report.
He further mentioned that eviction cases under the Public Premises Act are pending before the Commissioner since 2015 and no concrete action to seal any shop and re-auction them has been carried out so far. “Monitor and dispose of these cases expeditiously by taking personal interest, so that the occupiers of the shops/stalls in the Municipal Market come forward to execute the Leave and Licence Agreements with the CCP and we can start earning income from this market by way of rent and its arrears and the losses suffered by us can be reduced,” Furtado requested in the letter to Roy.
