PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Friday directed the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) to finalise the date on re-opening of the market by June 30.
The order comes after the counsel representing SGPDA A D Bhobe submitted to the Court that the authority is due to meet shortly in order to decide the precise date from which the wholesale fish market would be actually open for operations.
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Bhobe said, “The meeting will be held in this week positively.”
To this the Division Bench of Justices M S Sonak and M S Jawalkar said, “We direct the SGPDA to take a decision on the precise date of opening, one way or the other, before June 30, if necessary, by circulation.”
The Minutes of the Special Meeting held on June 23, 2020 on the issue of guidelines for the opening and operation of the wholesale fish market at Margao was also handed over to the Court during the hearing.
Advocates for the petitioner, Margao Wholesale Fish Market Association Dattaprasad Lawande and Pradosh Dangui stated that they have no grievance with regards to the guidelines which are now incorporated in the Minutes, except in relation to clause (2) which deals with the revision of levy collection rates. He, therefore, stated that liberty may be granted to the petitioners to challenge this clause in accordance with law.
During the last hearing, Lawande had stated that they have complied with every single condition referred to in the notice dated May 12, 2020 issued by the SGPDA except for one condition. He submitted that there is no concept of registration of vehicles with the Directorate of Fisheries and Directorate of Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), and that the FDA has set up inspection units at Pollem and Patradevi and at these inspecting units, the FDA inspects the fish particularly to trace the presence of formalin or other impermissible chemicals.
He had said that once there is a clearance from the FDA, the particular condition can said to have been substantially complied with.
