Shoppers fume over waterlogging of road near SGPDA retail fish market

MARGAO
The SGPDA retail market at Old Market came under the scanner of shoppers as well as retail fish vendors on Friday as the road leading to the market from the INOX theatre side was completely waterlogged.

At the retail fish market, fish vendors cried foul as the market went without power supply since Friday morning as they suspected the hand of the PDA behind the power outage.

SGPDA Chairman, MLA Krishna Daji Salkar, however, claimed that the PDA has not disconnected the power supply to the market, attributing the situation to the route power outage.

As the waterlogging is attributed to the blockage of internal market drains, the SGPDA Chairman Salkar and PDA Member Secretary Sheikh Ali deployed labourers to desilt and unclog the market drains.

Shoppers to the SGPDA retail market cried foul as they had to drive through the waterlogged road to make it to the market.

Fish vendors, on the other hand, suspected the hand of the PDA behind the power outage in the retail fish market on Friday. In fact, they pointed out that the vendors had individual electricity metres before the market was taken up for renovation on the lines of the Dubai fish market even as they insisted that the PDA restore them their individual metres. “We have been told that the PDA has received a huge power bill. Hence, we suspect that the PDA had disconnected the power supply to the market,” remarked a vendor.

PDA Chairman, Krishna Daji Salkar, however, firmly rejected the claim made by the retail fish vendors. “We have not disconnected the power supply to the market. May be there’s no power supply because of the power outage,” he said.

The PDA chairman said the Planning body has been after the fish vendors to accept the increase in the sopo fees to take care of the upkeep and maintenance of the market. “We are willing to take up the total renovation of the entire retail market by fixing the broken tiles and repairing the gates,” he said.

The PDA chairman also made a fervent plea to the fish vendors to do business from the market platform, saying ‘by doing business in the passage has only affected the customers visiting the market’.

Retail vendors, on the other hand, drew attention of the retail trade in the wholesale fish market, saying the retail business has adversely affected the business of the PDA retail fish vendors.

Salkar, however, replied to the vendors by reminding that a number of traditional fish vendors were permitted to do retail fish business in the wholesale fish market during the tenure of former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, adding that it is the responsibility of the Margao Municipal Council to initiate action against the retail fish vendors doing business outside the wholesale fish market.