On Monday afternoon, the entrance to vegetable market on East Marret Street presented a dismal sight of a mixture of slush, stagnant rainwater and mounds of rotting waste.
‘Thayir Market,’ as it is popularly known, has 152 shops selling a variety of vegetables. “This unhygienic condition will lead to all types of diseases. How can one even enter the market,” asked B. Jackie, who had come to buy vegetables.
Annapechi, who sells vegetables in the market for the last 40 years, said the putrid smell had worsened over the years. “We are unable to sell vegetables in peace as swarms of mosquitoes attack us all the time,” she said.
The vendors said the presence of three garbage bins nearby posed a problem. “Currently there are no dustbins at the banana and onion market, which are adjacent to the vegetable market. So waste from these markets, along with waste from nearby restaurants and shops are also dumped here,” said S. Saravanan, a functionary of CITU.
After repeated complaints from vendors, Madurai Corporation deployed lorries on Monday to suck out the stagnant waste water. “The vendors also dump waste in front of the market, rather than putting it into the bin,” said a Corporation conservancy worker.
The colour-coded bins distributed by the Corporation to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste were seldom used by vendors.
P. Kaniraja, a functionary of CITU, said that unless the vendors cooperated with Corporation officials, the problem would not be solved. “The Corporation must also create more awareness of the need for waste segregation,” he said.
