Team Herald
PANJIM: Steep hike in fish prices owing to the raging dispute at the wholesale fish market in Margao, has prompted the Margao Wholesale Fish Market Association to seek government’s intervention to solve the crisis.
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The association has urged Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to urgently resolve the prevailing issues and stop the alleged illegal collection by a “Levy Contractor.”
“The South Goa Planning and Development Authority appointed a “Levy Collector” by way of a Letter dated December 6, 2019 as a purely stop gap arrangement till the SGPDA finalized its tender regarding the said work. The Authority has allotted the task to one Milagris Fernandes and the entire collection work allotment is at the whims and fancies of the Chairman of SGPDA,” reads the letter by association secretary Joaquim Borges submitted to the CM on Thursday, April 8.
The Association alleged that the Levy Collector is behaving like a ‘Goonda’ and illegally charging fees from the wholesale vendors. The harassment, the letter adds, includes the exorbitant charges on per hour basis. “The tax, which was Rs 150 for a 4-wheeler and Rs 300 for a 6-wheeler per day before the COVID-19 pandemic in march 2020; was revised on June 23, 2020 to be on hourly basis and the increase was almost eight times than the earlier rates in a sudden and whimsical fashion,” it alleges.
With no relief from the SGPDA, the association approached the CM seeking intervention to resolve the crisis. The Association alleges that the entire process of appointing this Levy Collector is illegal, arbitrary and absolutely opaque.
On the other hand, the contractor had last week alleged that he was targeted for political reasons.
With SGPDA wholesale Fish market temporarily shut Goa has hit a fish crisis situation with pricing of various fish being charged exorbitantly all across Goa. Not only the availability of fish is facing acute shortage, but some retailers (reportedly non-Goan vendors) are selling stale fish.
