Panaji corporation to cancel market allotments, seek fresh claims

PANAJI: In a major step towards resolving the vexatious issue about illegal tenants in the Panaji municipal market, the Corporation of the city of Panaji (CCP), at a special meeting on Monday to discuss the issue, decided to cancel all allotments to the tenants. Instead, CCP plans to begin from scratch and will give tenants who have a rightful claim 30 days to submit their documents and get fresh allotments.
“The fact is that CCP has taken a resolution to cancel any kind of allotment of space made so far in the market,” CCP commissioner Ajit Roy said.“All allotments will be cancelled, reason being it was not done following legal procedure.”
Roy explained that since the rules were violated during the allotments and since the market has illegal occupants, the councillors had decided that the best way ahead was to seek claims from the tenants. “It was decided that the corporation will call all the claimants who think that they deserve a place in the market. We will give one month’s time to those who have a claim to submit all their documents, and then the corporation will scrutinize the names and as per CCP Act and other relevant rules, space will be allotted,” Roy said.
CCP has been grappling with this issue for years with successive commissioners struggling to resolve the issue. The lack of clarity over the tenants has also led to a loss of revenue for CCP. Though several councillors had reservations regarding the new strategy, all of them agreed to cancel the allotments.
The municipal body has already finalised the draft agreement that it plans to ink with the market tenants. The agreement is currently with the government’s legal cell and once the department of municipal administration gives its nod, CCP will go ahead and ink fresh leases with the market’s legal tenants.
“We will invite claims but for the record, there is only one list, which GSIDC prepared while constructing the municipal market. That is the base document, ,” Roy said.