Is leasing out parking land for commercial use a scam? Well, the Anti-Corruption Bureau has initiated a probe into city-based lawyer Adv Rajiv Gomes’ complaint of an alleged scam behind South Goa Planning and Development Authority’s decision to allot the land acquired specifically for parking to host exhibitions and sales.
MARGAO
Inquiries by The Goan, however, have revealed a startling fact that while shoppers to the Osia commercial complex and PDA retail market have been forced to park their vehicles in the muck in the parking lot over the years, the SGPDA had never ploughed back even a fraction of the revenue earned through leasing the acquired land, running into crores of rupees, and develop the same into a parking lot.
In fact, since the time the acquired land was thrown open for exhibitions and sales a little over a decade ago in 2005, inquiries have revealed that the exhibitions and sales have enriched the SGPDA coffers by crores of rupees.
Sadly, not a single rupee has been invested back into the very land which was acquired over a decade ago for vehicular parking. Instead of utilizing the revenue generated through the exhibitions to spruce up the parking lot and ensure orderly parking on the acquired land, the SGPDA deemed fit to utilize the revenue for other purposes, including payment of staff salaries and other expenses.
Take note that while the SGPDA had been utilizing the revenue generated from the exhibitions and sales for other purposes, it is a sheer irony that a project proposed by the PDA around half a decade ago to tar the acquired land for parking has been confined to the record books of the planning body for want of funds.
Information obtained from the SGPDA of the last half-a-decade has revealed that the authority has earned around Rs 2.54 crore by leasing the parking lot for exhibitions and sales. Statistics pertaining to the period between 2005-2011 is not available with the SGPDA on demand, with officials saying that it would take few days to compile the revenue data of the earnings from exhibitions.
When The Goan contacted SGPDA Member Secretary Ashok Kumar to shed light on the question why the revenue generated through the exhibitions and sales was never ploughed back into the acquired land, he had no answer, other than saying that the revenue was used to pay the staff salaries.
Ashok Kumar, who has joined the PDA only a couple of months ago, could not provide a break-up of the percentage of revenue spent on staff salaries and other heads. He, however, conceded that the PDA did not plough the revenue back into the parking land during the last one decade. In fact, he has no idea of the parking project mooted by the PDA on the acquired land, which envisaged soling the entire land and tarring the same for vehicular parking.
The only time the authorities executed soling work on the SGPDA acquired land was on the eve of the Lusofonia Games. However, huge craters have surfaced on the land since then as neither the SGPDA nor the authorities deemed fit to lay a coat of tar on the ground.
Says activist Savio Dias: “It is surprising that the SGPDA earned huge revenue from the land acquired for parking, but never bothered to develop the area for the purpose it was acquired. In the absence of any development, the entire area is uneven and unfit for parking. Hope better sense would prevail on the powers that be and the SGPDA officials.”
