Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 24: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plan to levy user fee on vegetable vendors and merchants at the city’s oldest market at Unit I has remained on paper.
BMC had at its monthly council meeting September 2, 2014, decided to impose user fee levy user fee of between `100 and `1,000 on vendors to help maintain cleanliness at the Unit I haat.
The BMC top brass swung into action when Chief Secretary GC Pati reportedly asked it to ensure round-the-clock cleanliness at the city’s oldest and largest market, according to sources.
The responsibility for maintenance of the haat was handed over to the civic body by the general administration department in 1984.
However, Orissa Post has found the haat still flooded with trash with the public having to negotiate through filthy pavements, belying BMC’s claims of cleanliness at the haat. Besides, trucks of wholesale vendors are parked in the middle of the market, creating chaos.
BMC had asked vendors to put up dustbins to streamline the process of collecting garbage from the market but the plan fizzled out because of callousness of the authorities concerned.
Several corporators have raised questions about BMC’s efficiency and urged the municipal commissioner to ensure cleanliness and regular disposal of trash.
Four time corporator and chairman of taxation standing committee Sheikh Nizamuddin said the corporation should ensure cleanliness as it had promised.
“Cleanliness matters a lot. BMC has done little to ensure sanitation and this irks a lot,” said Sudhansu Ranjan Jena, a regular visitor to the market.
