MARGAO
The retaining wall is in place and so are the entry and exit gates to Goa’s lone wholesale fish market operated by the South Goa Planning and Development Authority, but the planning body has certainly missed the November 1 deadline set to usher in changes in the market.
But attribute it to lack of political will on part of the Authority or otherwise, neither the gates are closed for business after 9 in the morning nor any action has been initiated against the rampant retail or sale at the SGPDA’s wholesale fish market.
On the other hand sale of fish is being carried out not only inside the market, but also near the gate and to make matters worse the activity spilled over to the adjoining Seraulim-Margao road. A lone Margao municipal worker deployed at the venue to reign in on the sale of fish and vegetables outside the market has failed to change the ground reality at the site.
Questions are being raised in the corridors of the SGPDA as well as in the wholesale fish market over the delay on part of the planning body to initiate action with both the retaining wall and the gates in place at the market.
It’s over a fortnight now since curtains came down on the two-day BRICS summit, but the SGPDA seems to be taking its own time to crack a whip at the wholesale fish market. SGPDA Chairman Mauvin Godinho had told the media around mid-October that the PDA will delay the enforcement of the new set of rules in the wholesale fish market in view of the intervening BRICS summit so that the state does not earn any bad name in the event of any law and order problem in the market.
The SGPDA had all along maintained that the wholesale fish market will witness changes once the retaining wall and the gates are in place. However, it’s now over more than two months since the wholesale fish market has been secured with a retaining wall, but the promised changes are yet to see light of the day.
What’s important to note is that the SGPDA has been dragging its feet to restore order in the wholesale fish market, knowing well that any positive action in the wholesale fish market will bring the desired change in the mega retail fish market in the Osia commercial complex.
The retail fish vendors in the retail market have been selling fish in the market passages over the last couple of years in protest against the retail fish activity in the wholesale fish market.
In fact, retail fish vendors president Felix Gonsalves has time and again maintained that the retail fish vendors will sit on the platforms in the retail fish market no sooner the retail fish activity is
put to a stop in the wholesale fish market.
