in the absence of new chairman, there is no authority in place to deal with the issue
Road outside wholesale fish market is full of potholes & one big crater
MARGAO: If the state of affairs inside the wholesale fish market calls for urgent attention, the situation outside is not anything better.
The Seraulim-Margao road, which passes adjoining to the wholesale fish market, has become accident-prone because of a huge crater (see picture).
Neither the traffic police nor the PWD officials have initiated steps to either barricade the crater or fill it up with rubbles.
Apparently taking note of the apathy and indifference of the authorities concerned, good Samaritans placed a fish crate in the crater to serve as a warning to motorists.
Fish vendors pointed out that the crater has caused several accidents, especially for residents, including parents transporting their wards to city-based schools on two-wheelers.
Though the crater had surfaced around a fortnight ago, it has only grown in size enough for a wheel of a four-wheeler to get stuck inside.
That’s not all, the entire wholesale fish market roadside is littered with filth, with neither the Margao Municipal Council nor any other agency around to undertake clean-up operation in the area.
the goan I network
MARGAO
Not only has the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) been caught on the wrong foot for unhygienic conditions in the wholesale market and dumping of fish boxes, but now its directions to clear the market of the rot have been ignored.
That’s not all. In spite of the SGPDA issuing permission for resumption of wholesale activity and insisting that no fish truck will park in the market after 10 am everyday, a fleet of trucks were spotted in the market on Tuesday evening right under the nose of the planning body.
The wholesale fish market was in the news last week after a Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) official unearthed glaring discrepancies, including storage of empty fish crates in the market and the stinking conditions in its premises.
Based on the GSPCB official report, the SGPDA had set three-day deadline on the sopo contractor to clear the market of the fish boxes and other waste.
A visit to the market, however, revealed fish crates and boxes lying around, and not to mention the fleet of fish trucks engaged in the transportation of fish from across the State.
At the time of issuing permission to the wholesale agents to resume wholesale fish activity last year, the SGPDA had inserted a condition in the permission that no truck will be allowed to park inside the market after business hours at 10 am.
The condition was apparently inserted in order to bring about regulation and order in the market and to ensure that the unsold fish is stored in the trucks for sale the next day.
The decision was taken by the PDA apparently after social activists and political parties complained that fish imported from across the border is stored in the vehicles, which are then parked in the market, for sale the next day.
SGPDA Member Secretary Ashok Kumar was not available for comment, but sources in the PDA informed that the officials must be waiting for the new Chairman to take charge of office and draw a plan of action to deal with the issues at hand.
