Plans afoot to ensure better disposal of garbage at flower market
The Hindu
MADURAI
Though the entry and exit lanes at the flower market in Mattuthavani are packed with colourful sampangi, button roses and kanakambaram, the fringes of the pathway are littered with used paper cups and aluminium foils.
Just behind the market, heap of unsegregated plastic and rotting flowers greet passers-by with a strong whiff of stench.
When asked about this, a flower stall owner says that during a recent meeting held with the Agricultural Marketing Committee Secretary V. Mercy Jayarani, they were asked to collect waste generated on a daily basis by segregating it into degradable and non-degradable items and hand it over to sanitary workers.
“We were also warned that stringent action would be taken by the Corporation and fine imposed if improper disposal of waste continues,” the stall owner says.
“This order is taken seriously by all the 104 stall owners, but I doubt if temporary vendors will do so,” she adds.
Ms Jayarani said that this plan to segregate waste came after discussions with the Madurai Corporation to work out better streamlining of garbage clearance periodically from the market.
She adds that after many years, from this January the maintenance fee was raised to ₹625 per month from ₹225.
While residents are worried over deaths due to diarrhoea in Vijayawada, officials still grapple to find the root cause. Contaminated drinking water supplied by VMC officials is the reason, insist people in the affected areas, but officials insist that efforts are on to identify the disease and that those with symptoms other than diarrhoea too are visiting the health camps.