Addressing the press on Monday, the market vendors’ leader Kishore Mamlekar stated that the resolution passed by the PMC last week to send notices to recover sopo of around Rs 35 lakh for 2014-15 was nothing but harassment of the vendors. He alleged that the PMC, which had handed over the sopo collection to a contractor, was responsible for the failure to recover the sopo.
“Disputes arose over the sopo in 2014-15 as the sopo had been hiked by the PMC. The vendors, who opposed the hike, agreed to collect and deposit the sopo into the PMC’s bank account. We deposited around Rs 4.20 lakh. But surprisingly, when we later tried to transfer Rs 1.17 lakh in January, Rs 1.18 lakh in February and Rs 1.17 lakh in March, the money was not getting transferred from our account to the PMC account. The vendors are not responsible for this,” said Mamlekar.
He further said, “Even though the PMC says a huge amount of Rs 35 lakh is arrears due to the heavy sopo hike, we are not bound to pay it. We have told the PMC that rate of Rs 12 per sq mts per day is not acceptable to the vendors, so we are settling for a rate of Rs 100 per month. Accordingly, an amount of Rs 4.20 lakh for seven months is supposed to get deposited in the PMC account. We tried to transfer the three times, but it was returned. How are we responsible if the PMC bank account did not accept the money?”
Mamlekar also questioned how the PMC could issue notices for recovery when the matter was sub judice. He also said that the PMC advocate had asked the Council to terminate the sopo contract, but the latter had failed to act on his advice.
“The Chief Officer had also threatened to lodge a police complaint for the bounced cheque of the sopo contractor, but the PMC did not act against the contractor. So how are only the vendors responsible for the non-recovery of sopo?” said Mamlekar.
The market vendors have also stated that they would not pay sopo until they are shifted to the new market complex.
