MARGAO
When will the government and the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) finally rid Goa’s lone wholesale fish market of the stink and unhygienic conditions and give relief to the stakeholders, including fishermen, boat owners, fish traders and fish buyers.
This question has come back to the fore again as the SGPDA and the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) are anxiously looking at Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to take an early call on the shifting of the market to a makeshift place to help expedite the ongoing work on the modern wholesale fish market.
Just pay a casual visit to the wholesale fish market and this question would find an echo amongst the fishermen and the traders, besides the buyers as stink pervades the market, forcing the visitors to walk through the muck and the traders selling their fish in the stench.
That’s not all. The water drains seemed clogged with the water flowing into an outlet. It is feared that the leachate and the wastewater from the market find their way into the adjoining river Sal, though the PDA had claimed to have put a treatment plant in place at the market.
A visit to the wholesale market on Friday revealed the worst scenario. With the wholesale fish activity being conducted only on one portion of the market area, with the GSIDC undertaking work on the balance portion for the modern market, the space constraint has come to hit the market activity.
The entrance pavement which was earlier used for parking two-wheelers and cycles of fish vendors, now plays host to the fish vehicles, but the entire place wore a dirty look.
The less said of the main market area inside the better as one cannot go and come out without walking through muck and stench.
The stakeholders hold on to the hope that the construction activity underway inside the market area will bring around a turnaround in Goa’s lone wholesale fish market.
But, the delay in the shifting of the existing market to a temporary place near the Margao Ravindra Bhavan, has come in the way of the execution of the project.
When The Goan asked SGPDA Chairman, MLA Krishna Daji Salkar to shed light on the market shifting, he said the Chief Minister will take a call on the issue given that it would require a huge amount of money to prepare the makeshift market.
