Traders refuse to pay to this group, say will pay only to SGPDA officials
the goan I network
MARGAO
The wholesale fish market witnessed an uproar on Thursday morning after the fish traders questioned the attempt made by a group of persons to collect sopo fees from the vehicles entering the market.
The traders refused to pay the sopo fees to these persons and called the police to maintain law and order in the market. The Margao Wholesale Fish Market Association later in the evening lodged a complaint against some persons for stopping the fish vehicles from entering the market without any authority.
Association president M Ibrahim informed that the SGPDA had withdrawn the order issued to the sopo contractor Milagres Fernandes on Wednesday, as a result of which the sopo collection had to be carried out by officials of the planning body. “Instead of the officials, we came across some persons, who stopped the fish vehicles from entering the market by demanding the sopo fees. We refused to pay the fees since the fees are now required to be collected by the officials designated by the SGPDA,” he said.
Even as SGPDA member Secretary Ranjit Borkar on Thursday stated that the PDA has appointed officials to collect the sopo fees from Friday, Ibrahim pointed out that the traders will hand over the sopo fees only to the officials and to no one else.
“We would like to inform the PDA that the fish traders will hand over the sopo fees only to the PDA officials in the market. The PDA has submitted names of the officials authorised to collect the sopo fees in the High Court. We would only hand over the sopo fees to these officials and to no one else,” he said.
The Association’s stand assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of reports that the PDA is planning to engage some persons who were in the past collecting sopo fees from the vehicles.
Interestingly, sources pointed out that some of the SGPDA officials are ready and willing to personally collect fees from the vehicles entering the wholesale fish market, but their services have not been considered by the Planning body.
