MARGAO: The Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardessai has admitted he discussed the ban on imports of fish till the mechanism to test its quality was in place with the CM. He said all the remaining markets at the SGPDA complex would be renovated and refurbished shortly. He also came down heavily on the owner of Osia Commercial Arcade for his illegalities.
“Let the fish market which is reeling under the formalin issue stabilize first as presently hardly anybody visits the market,” he said admitting that the formalin issue has affected the fish trade in the market and revealed that the renovation of the whole market will be done through GSIDC.
He said the state of art testing laboratories for fish which has been promised not only by the State government but also by the Central government will take some time to set up and said till that time to regain people’s confidence, fish imports should be banned and only fish caught by Goans vessels be sold in the market.
He admitted that the other markets and specially the meat market needs to be renovated and lamented that things have come to such a situation only because the previous government had given the Kotharis who built the market a preferential treatment.
“We shall take action against the eateries in the market place,” he said and directed the South Goa Planning and Development Authorities to inspect them and check if they have permission from the Food and Drugs Administration.
He also asked the officials to check how many establishments have been converted into godowns in the market. “Actually there ought to be no godowns there at all,” he said directing SGPDA officials to crack down on all illegalities.
He asked the Margao Municipal Council and the SGPDA to prepare an audit of the Osia Commercial Complex and submit a report within a week stating how many units are there and how many of them have taken water and sewerage connections.
He came down heavily upon the builder Kothari as many of his illegalities came to light. Margao Municipal Council chairperson Dr Babita Prabhudessai strongly objected to the building issuing NOC for renovations and reconstructions when Kothari who was present for the meeting admitting issuing NOC.
MMC was directed to act swiftly on the illegal toilet being constructed by one financial institute that has taken the place on rental basis from the builder. The builder could not explain why a maintenance company was not constituted to maintain the commercial arcade and admitted that there is no maintenance done of the building or even of the common toilets there.
“There are many government offices in this complex and many people come here even though the building is in such an unhygienic condition,” said Vijai while pointing out that the builder has made a huge profit as the government not only gave land cheap but also took some of the premises on lease paying rent to the builder and the SGPDA has been paying Rs. 3 lakhs every year to maintain the toilets and another Rs. 1 lakh to maintain the lift.
Even as Dr Babita claimed that the builder had flouted all rules and regulations, it was exposed that the builder had tapped into the sewerage network illegally as he claimed that the building is connected to the system while officials of Sewerage Development Corporation pointed out that they have no record of the building connecting to the network.
The sewerage from the complex used to be released directly into the storm water drains in the night and this came to light when MMC officials and workers were working late night to cut the Old Market traffic island when they were assailed by obnoxious odours.
Vijai has called for a review meeting at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex in a week where the audit report would be placed and concrete action decided upon to correct the mess existing in the area.
