Team Herald
PANJIM/MAPUSA: Large number of shopkeepers from Mapusa Municipal Council market on Tuesday morning closed their shops and gathered outside Mapusa Municipality office protesting against the show-cause notices issued to them for subletting their shops/kiosks in the market.
The Mapusa Merchants Association demanded that an Ordinance be issued to protect the interest of the vendors and to sort out the issue as show cause notices have been issued following a writ petition filed before the High Court of Bombay at Goa..
The vendors later met Deputy Speaker Joshua D’Souza, who assured them that he would give his all possible help to them and told them that the matter was not subjudice.
Over the issue of renewal of lease agreements of municipality-owned shops and stalls, the Mapusa Municipal Council has issued around 309 show-cause notices to the original leaseholders of the shops and stalls for allegedly subleasing the municipal property to third parties. The show-cause notices have been issued in connection with a writ petition filed by Jawaharlal Shetye, over the issue of subletting of shops.
The High Court has issued a notice to the chief officer of the Mapusa Municipal Council directing him to file a reply within two weeks after the petitioner mentioned that the council had refused to take action over the subleasing of its properties.
The Association said that some merchants might have made mistakes but the government and the court need to look into this on humanitarian ground.
“It’s not just 1,000 merchants but 10,000 families who are dependent on these businesses. We are contributing to the idea of Atmanirbhar Bharat,” said Ashish Shirodkar, former president of Mapusa Merchants Association.
He said that merchants contribute atleast Rs 100 crore to the State economy by way of various taxes.
Arguing on behalf of the petitioner, Adv Rohit Bras de Sa on Tuesday stated that the civic body refused to take action against sub-leasing of municipal properties.
He contended that the municipality officials refused to initiate action against lessees who continued to remain in possession of the property beyond three years of the lease period without renewing the agreement as per the provision of Section 88 of Goa Municipalities Act.
The Council also refused to take action against the transfer of municipal immovable properties to blood relations in violation of provisions of Goa Municipalities Act.
The High Court had also directed the Director of Municipal Administration to enquire into all the allegations made in the petition and file an affidavit.
Adv Sandesh Padiyar representing the Mapusa Municipal Council told the Court that whenever market inspectors go for inspection in the market, those running the shops, kiosks and stalls tell them that they are workers of the lessee.
Later, the Division Bench Mahesh S Sonak and B P Deshpande allowed the petitioner to join the Mapusa Merchants Association as one of the respondents and issued notice to them.
