MARGAO: Following concerns raised by citizens and activists over the pending dues, in lakhs of rupees, owed by the sopo contractor of the Margao Municipal Council, councillor Mahesh Amonkar has urged the Chief Officer and Chairperson to recover the taxes at the earliest, and issue a notice to the contractor for his failure to pay them.
Amonkar said that the earlier council had resolved to waive off the amount; however, in April, the Directorate of Municipal Administration had informed the civic body in writing, that the ‘sopo’ of the contractor cannot be waived off.
The DMA was responding to a complaint filed by the Shadow Council of Margao (SCM) against the MMC’s decision to waive Rs 32 lakh of the outstanding sopo dues.
“Now, my request to the chairperson and chief officer is that they should immediately send a notice to the sopo contractor and ask him to pay the outstanding amount within 15 days. We can even initiate legal procedures if the payment is not made,” said Amonkar.
“I have already given instructions to the recovery section to initiate the process of recovering the dues from the sopo contractor. As the DMA has rejected the waiver request, the civic body needs to recover the amount,” said Damodar Shirodkar, MMC Chairperson, when contacted.
