MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council on Saturday stepped into the SGPDA mega retail market housing meat stalls to cap the unhygienic conditions, even as TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai offered an amnesty to the meat traders.
The drive, however, threw up a host of questions given that the Margao civic body has no mandate to undertake cleanliness drive in the SGPDA markets. Questions were asked in market circles whether the contractor appointed by the PDA to look after the maintenance is responsible for the cleanliness of the market.
During the drive, a host of skeletons tumbled out at the meat stalls, with the exercise unearthing illegal encroachments on the drains and the failure of the PDA and the health department to crack a whip against the illegalities and insanitary conditions.
Incidentally, TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai, who was asked to comment on the MMC drive in the SGPDA market, said the civic body has undertaken the exercise since the MMC Chief Officer has come under the scanner of the High Court.
He, however, pointed out that the PDA and the government are ready to give amnesty to the meat stalls if the traders come together and
make a common representation to the PDA.
He said the meat owners can raise the height of the stalls with due permission of the civic body as the PDA has decided to extend a similar benefit to set up the state of the art fish and food testing laboratory in the PDA market.
“Let them come under one banner and give a representation and the PDA will sympathetically look into their request for raising the height of the stalls,” Sardesai added.
