Team Herald
MARGAO: Shadow Council for Margao (SCM) has heavily criticised the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) for allowing the alleged defaulting sopo contractor to collect fees from trader’s around the town’s jurisdiction in spite of his tenure expiring.
SCM convenor and former MMC Chairperson Savio Coutinho pointed out that the term of the sopo contractor has expired on March 31, 2022, which meant he no longer had the authority to collect occupation fees.
“Merely taking a resolution does not authorise the contractor to collect fees. A valid authority letter needs to be issued to the contractor. In the present situation, there is no such authorisation letter issued to the contractor, and the collection he has resorted to is absolutely illegal,” said Coutinho.
“We have already submitted representations to all the concerned authorities and we will do everything it takes to penalise the people responsible for causing immense losses to the public exchequer,” Coutinho added further.
SCM demanded that the MMMC Chief Officer immediately stop the contractor from collecting the occupation fees, and forthright make arrangements to collect the fees departmentally.
“SCM was well aware that the MMC chairperson would delay in preparing the council minutes of March 14, so as to grant a backdoor opportunity to the contractor to collect the fees. The council is hereby cautioned against doing illegal acts as they will face the consequences if they continue like this,” Coutinho added.
