At a council meeting on Wednesday, VMC Chief Officer Dasharath Gawas stated that illegal stalls in the municipality’s jurisdiction were hampering the business of stall owners who paid taxes. He said the stalls would be closed within 15 days, following a survey of the same.
VMC also decided to shift the Tuesday weekly bazaar to Massorde village road due to many complaints from parents and students of Fatima Convent School and residents of the surrounding area.
A heated discussion also took place on the recruitment of an engineer and four drivers for the VMC on contract basis. Gawas tabled the permission granted by the Director of Municipal Administration regarding the recruitment, but most councillors rejected the same as VMC’s financial status was unstable. While they maintained that no extra employees were required presently, Councillor Ramdas Shirodkar argued that an engineer was required to channelize some of the pending work.
Regarding the sopo tax, Gawas disclosed that the contractor who was appointed for tax collection suddenly stopped his duties, and thus, the municipality had scrapped his contract. It was decided that the municipal staff would collect the tax.
Many other issues were also discussed. Before the meeting, the Council observed a minute of silence in honour of former President APJ Abdul Kalam.
