Team Herald
MARGAO: The tender for sopo (market vendors tax) collection and maintenance of Margao’s controversial wholesale fish market has been cancelled after a year with no bids submitted by contractors. The South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) announced plans to re-issue the tender within the next two months, leaving citizens frustrated.
It is pertinent to note that there have been repeated incidents of clashes and confusion between SGPDA officials and fish traders over the issue of sopo collection and market maintenance for a prolonged period.
Despite several assurances, the SGPDA failed to finalise the sopo collection tender, even under High Court directions. There have been allegations from fish traders accusing the SGPDA and its personnel responsible for sopo collection of extortion. SGPDA Chairman and Vasco MLA Krishna ‘Daji’ Salkar had assured during a meeting in June that the tender would be floated by the end of the same month.
Earlier, the SGPDA had resolved to relax the tender conditions, removing the requirement for three years of experience and the stipulation that contractors should be from the fishing industry. It has now been reported that a decision was made to cancel the tender floated in 2023, at a recent board meeting.
Responding to the issue, Shaikh Ali Ahmed, Member Secretary of the SGPDA, told reporters, “A re-tender will be floated within the next two months. Interested parties will be given one month to submit their bids for the new tender.”
Reacting to the issue, Savio Coutinho, former Chairperson of the Margao Municipal Council, said that this BJP government seems to have attained the distinction of being very good extortionists through “official” collection modules.
“The powers in control of local bodies plant their henchmen to do the collection. The amount hardly reaches the official account of the local body. Previously, it was seen happening at the Margao Municipal Council, and now the SGPDA has worked out sopo as a better ‘source,’ and hence prefers to cling to operating markets, which normally has always been the subject matter of the Municipality,” he alleged.
He said that several issues of overcharging and extortion have been reported, yet the authority still doesn’t see the need to have a transparent system in place.