MARGAO
Stink, sludge, muck and a pathetic environment welcomed hundreds of buyers and sellers to the SGPDA wholesale fish market as Goa’s lone wholesale fish market craved attention from the PDA and other authorities.
The prevailing conditions in the wholesale fish market left the traders and vendors and the general public with no option but to walk through the muck and stink, throwing up serious questions about the market maintenance.
The situation has been further aggravated with the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) commencing work on the development of a Rs 50-crore new wholesale fish market. With the GSIDC commencing work on the eastern side of the market admeasuring around 10,000 square metres, the wholesale fish trade is now presently conducted on the market’s western side, where the ground conditions are not conducive for the sale of fish. Pre-monsoon showers have only added to the woes of the stakeholders.
The SGPDA, at its first meeting under the Chairmanship of MLA Krishna (Daji) Salkar, had resolved that the PDA would carry out the maintenance of the wholesale fish market departmentally pending e-tendering of the sopo contract.
The prevailing conditions in the wholesale fish market, however, left much to be desired, with visitors calling for urgent action on the maintenance front. Visitors called for temporary measures in the market, including the dumping of material to rid the market of the muck, where people can walk freely without any fear of slipping down.
“The PDA should immediately dump some material so that the muck, waterlogging and stink are taken care of on priority. Just imagine when the traders keep their boxes of fish from the vehicles on the ground. This is indeed a pathetic sight”, remarked a visitor.
The GSIDC has taken up the development of the wholesale fish market at Rs 50 crore with Central government funding, but it would take some months before the state-of-the-art market with cold storage facility takes shape.
