Team Herald
PONDA: Ponda market shed vendors have decided to pay sopo of only Rs 3.33 per sq mts monthly to the Ponda Municipal Council (PMC).
Market leader Kishore Mamlekar argued that the PMC, on August 26, passed a resolution to charge monthly rent of Rs 100 per sq mts from 48 shop operating from the new market complex, which is Rs 3.33 per sq mts daily.
He stated that the shop owners had secure premises, while the market vendors were operating in a shed that offered no protection to them or their goods at night. He stated that despite this disadvantage, the market vendors were charged Rs 360 per sq mts – or Rs 12 per day – which they have been paying under protest for the last few months.
He stated that this was a great injustice to the market vendors and questioned why they had to pay more than the shopkeepers. He added, “Despite our agitations against the sopo hike, we have been neglected by the PMC. Henceforth, all market shed vendors will stop paying sopo at Rs 12, which they are paying under protest since the matter is in court. They will pay Rs 3.33, which is fixed for the shop keepers in the new market complex.”
The market vendors have been demanding a rollback of the sopo rate for over one-and-a-half years and had even approached the High Court with the plea to reduce the sopo from Rs 12 to Rs 5.
