MUNICIPALITY ORDINANCE WILL OUST GOANS FROM MUNICIPAL SHOPS: CONGRESS
PANAJI: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) has expressed apprehensions that Goans will be ousted from municipality shops after 50 years as per the new Goa Municipalities (Amendment) Ordinance, which has been promulgated.
According to GPCC Media Cell convenor Trajano D’Mello, those having completed occupancy of the shop for 40 years will get only 10 moreyears, even as the shops have been handed from grandfather to grandson. This will give shops to migrants, he said adding that the Ordinance also proposes to increase the rent from 5 per cent to 10 per cent, instead of taking note of the pandemic conditions where all business suffered.
Trajano questioned the need for promulgating the Ordinance when Goa Assembly session has been convened on 25th January. The Ordinance also speaks of regularising illegal transfer of shops, he observed.
“There are many Goan families who are a lessee of the Municipal Council and running the businesses from last many years. But now according to new rule the shops which were run by grandfathers, their grandsons may not get long continuity. It could be extended upto 10 years,” Trajano pointed out.
“With this Ordinance Goans will be deprived of businesses, which their grandfathers used to run and it would go to non-Goan,” he lamented.
“I have a fear that government is trying to pull the businesses from Goans, so non-Goans would bid for the auction and take over the shops,” Trajano said.
