Team Herald

MARGAO: Continuing its drive to get business establishments to register themselves with the Margao Municipal Council, last week MMC officials visited around 80 establishments following which people have obtained trade licence and MMC has collected around Rs 8 lakh as fees for the same.

“We visited all establishments in around 6 buildings and checked the documents and advised the owners on what is required to be done. I am happy to note that people have now started coming and completing the procedure to register themselves with the council,” Chief Officer Sidhivinayak Naik said.

Disclosing that many financial institutes, including some nationalised banks, were operating without licences and permissions, Naik said they would move for disconnecting their power and water connections if they do not comply by the rules shortly.

“We are giving them time to settle the matter as in many cases the amount payable is above the amount the manager is authorized to pay and hence permission from higher officials is required,” he said adding that the amounts have increased because there was lethargy in the past and hence forth the payments will be collected as and when they are due.

It may be recalled that when this drive was initiated on August 31, the officials had visited only three buildings and calculated that revenue amount to Rs 3 crore could be collected from the three buildings inspected namely Ranghavi Building, Osia Commercial Arcade and Reliance Trade Center.

Naik also disclosed that Pantaloons mall had not submitted the mandatory NOC from the fire services and that is the reason why they were not issued the trade licence. “However, now they have agreed to submit that document within a week and we shall issue them the licence thereafter,” he said.

Meanwhile, the MMC is also considering opting for the Radio Frequency Identification of Document technology for the files so that the exact location of a file will be known. 

Currently, MMC is suffering from disappearance of files which mysteriously resurface when some noise is made about them.

“This technology will enable officials to press a remote and know exactly where the file is and hence there will be no more excuses given of missing files,” said Sidhivinayak while admitting that a decision on this technology will have to be taken after the Ganesh festival.