MARGAO
It’s not even two days since curtains came down on the two-day conference of Foreign Ministers attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) held at the Taj Exotica, Benaulim on May 4-5.
The wholesale fish market road, which was maintained spick and span by the authorities since the road was to be used by the foreign dignitaries to head to Benaulim, is back to square one. Illegal vending is back on the platform outside the wholesale fish market, vehicles are found parked on the wholesale fish market road, while litter and stench have raised their ugly head along the road.
The wholesale fish market and the road had seen a turnaround last week after the state administration got its act together to undertake a cleanup operation since the Foreign Ministers were to use the road en route to Taj Exotica.
Measures adopted by the authorities had given the market as well as the entire half-a-kilometre road stretch a facelift, evoking accolades from the traditional fishermen and local boat owners.
The situation is slowly returning to square one. A visit to the wholesale fish market has revealed that vehicular parking, which was stopped during the SCO conference has returned to the wholesale fish market road.
Retail fish vending too has raised its ugly head on the platform outside the wholesale fish market. The platform was cleaned up by the authorities ahead of the SCO conference. Sunday saw retail vending back on the platform, with fish vendors carrying out retail fish trade. Plastic bags and other waste also surfaced along the road once again, throwing up serious questions over the role of local authorities, including the SGPDA, Margao Municipality and the Fatorda police in enforcing the rule of law.
SGPDA Member Secretary Sheikh Ali was forthright in saying that the planning body has no role to play in the activities taking place outside the wholesale fish market compound. He was categorical in saying that the domain of the PDA falls inside the market, saying the area outside falls under the jurisdiction of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC).
Questions are being raised about whether the Margao civic body has turned a blind eye to the illegal retail vending seen on the platform outside the market. For, fears are being raised in certain quarters that unless the civic body nips the retail fish-selling activity outside the market platform, the day will not be far when the entire wholesale fish market road will be back as a fish vending zone.
Traditional fishermen and boat owners last week welcomed the administration’s action to rid the wholesale fish market road of parking by fish transporting trucks. Sunday saw a couple of fish-laden trucks back on the roadsides, with apprehensions raised that fish trucks will be back on the roadside again if the Fatorda police, Margao Traffic Cell and the Transport department do not crack a whip against illegal parking.
A visitor to the wholesale fish market on Sunday remarked that the authorities should act before the illegalities resurface in and around the wholesale fish market, including the road.
“If the state administration could bring a turn around inside and outside the wholesale fish market and barred parking on the road during the Foreign Minister’s conference, why can’t the local authorities maintain the market every day,” the visitor remarked.
