Fisherwomen presented a list of complaints about the maintenance of the main fish market at an interaction with the Minister for Fisheries, Youth Empowerment and Sports, Pramod Madhwaraj, here on Thursday.
Baby H. Salian, president of the Udupi Mahila Hasimeenu Maratagarara Sangha, said the new fish market, built a year ago, was yet to get drinking water connection. Some of the other issues are: the narrow drainage inside the market gets blocked daily; some of the floor tiles have come off; water pipes are of poor quality; and fans aren’t in the proper places. The dressing room for fisherwomen on the ground floor was leaking, and there was leakage in some parts of the building, she said.
Nagaraj, an officer from the Ports and Fisheries Department, said the water pipes provided at the counter for washing purposes were damaged because of rough use. He said it was not possible to provide toilet facility on the first floor as there was no provision in the building design.
However, he said the tiles would be replaced. Though the market has provision for accommodating 175 fisherwomen, all of them want to do business on the ground floor, with only two or three dry fish sellers opting for the first floor. This is leading to blockage of drainage line. Roofwater leakages will also be repaired, he said.
The department handed over the building to the Udupi City Municipal Council about a month ago. D. Manjunathaiah, CMC Commissioner, said it required ₹1.36 lakh a month for maintenance of the fish market. This included providing three watchmen and two sweepers, he said.
Mr. Madhwaraj urged the fisherwomen to give a monthly fee to meet the expenses. This could be collected on the basis of the money fisherwomen earn. “Every day we have to spend ₹4,000 for maintenance. You choose the watchmen and sweepers, the CMC will pay them,” he said.
He directed Mr. Manjunathaiah to provide drinking water facility immediately to the market and to make an estimate of the requirements listed by the fisherwomen and provide them within a fortnight. He also directed Mr. Nagaraj to carry out the repair work in a fortnight.
