Team Herald
SANGUEM: The long pending rent arrears issue between the Sanguem Municipal Council (SMC) and the Sanguem Merchants Association was finally settled at the council meeting on Tuesday.
The settlement was reached consequent to the two-day ultimatum served by the SMC on the lessees for immediate payment of rent arrears and half a day shutdown of shops by Sanguem Merchants Association.
The meeting was convened after the agitated lessees of municipal shops gathered at the entrance of SMC building and started accusing the council of being highhanded and not adhering to the oral directions issued by the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in August this year.
As the agitated shop owners were not ready to move, a special meeting was convened by the council which was headed by Chief Officer Laxmikant Desai, Chairperson Romualdo Fernandes, Vice Chairperson Fouziya Shaikh and all ward councillors. A five-member team led by President Raju Desai represented the Sanguem Merchants Association at the negotiations.
At the outset, Chairperson Fernandes brought to the notice of the agitated lessees the reason for serving the two-day ultimatum and also explained the difficulties faced by the council in paying wages to the council staff on account of paucity of funds.
The agitated lessees were however not in a mood to listen to the views expressed by the chairperson and sought to know as to why the council was sleeping for 22 long years to recover the rent arrears.
As the debate was going out of hands, councillor Sandesh Kossambe intervened and suggested that sufficient time be given to the lessees as the amount being huge they would not be in a position to pay the arrears in one go.
The suggestion put forth by Kossambe was finally accepted by the lessees would shall pay the rent arrears in monthly installments.
Raju Desai however added that the payment will be made under protest until the time the municipality receives correspondence from the Office of the chief minister over the meeting held with the lessees.
Raju Desai further informed that lessees owing more than Rs 2 lakh shall pay an initial amount of Rs 10,000, while those owing less than Rs 1 lakh shall pay initial amount of Rs 5000. The suggestion was accepted by both the parties for the time being and the meeting ended with Chairperson Fernandes thanking the lessees for agreeing to the settlement.
