Team Herald
PONDA: Ponda market vendors have alleged that the Ponda Municipal Council (PMC) “looted” matoli vendors by imposing exorbitant sopo rates on them during Ganesh Chaturthi. They also slammed the local MLA and PMC chairperson for failing to resolve the sopo issue.
On Thursday, market leader Kishore Mamlekar produced around 50 sopo receipts that had been issued to matoli vendors. The vendors, who sat in the open market, had each been charged Rs 200 – 300 instead of Rs 6 per sq mts, which had been fixed by the PMC.
Mamlekar said he had received several complaints from vendors that the PMC was overcharging them. He alleged that the PMC had looted and exploited poor farmers and matoli vendors, and that around 800 vendors had been charged in only a few days.
Around nine PMC workers had been assigned the sopo collection for the matoli vendors. Mamlekar stated that the receipts were suspicious, and hence, he would file an RTI to ascertain on what basis the PMC had charged the matoli vendors.
Social worker Swati Kerkar stated that the Kerim panchayat had submitted a resolution copy to the PMC seeking reasonable sopo rates as the municipality, despite the fixed rate, was colleting over Rs 100 from vendors even if they operated for only two or three hours every week.
Ponda market vendors also stated that PMC chairperson Radhika Naik had proved to be the most incompetent administrator during her three-year tenure. They claimed that she was unable to handle the issues of the market, including sopo, and even the citizens’ issues. Although the municipality elections are only a month away, they have demanded her resignation in the interest of the market vendors and citizens.
The market vendors also informed that they will gherao local MLA Lavoo Mamledar on Tuesday as he had allegedly failed to honour his promise of settling the sopo issue.
The promise was made at a meeting with the vendors, during which he had asked them to pay the sopo, and in return, he would ensure that the PMC resolved the footpath vendor issue, gutter problems and widening of passages.
The vendors stated that despite paying sopo fees of 9 lakh to the PMC, the latter had failed to widen the market access route and remove the footpath vendors. They claimed to have suffered massive losses during Ganesh Chaturthi as people chose to purchase matoli items from the footpath vendors instead of passing through a narrow passage to the market.
They added that the footpath vendors were eating into the business, due to which they the market vendors’ association was unable to collect the monthly sopo fees from the market Vendors to deposit with the PMC. The monthly fees amount to Rs 4.30 lakh.
