While MMC Chairperson Gonzaco Rebello has pacified the agitated vendors by promising to rein in the contractor to collect only prescribed sopo fees, the episode has thrown up a host of questions. Vendors have demanded to know how the municipality can allow the contractor to collect sopo when they have paid around Rs 3,300 per two-metre size stall to the MMC, inclusive of the waste collection fees.
Secondly, municipal rules prescribed collection of sopo from the general vendors at the rate of Rs 2 per sqm. Vendors have now questioned the civic babus as to why the sopo was not collected at the time of allotment of stalls instead of allowing the contractor and other unscrupulous elements to hold them to ransom.
