Water stagnation, debris at Sabzi Mandi pose health hazard

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 5

Mounds of debris at the Old Sabzi Mandi are a health hazard for residents. A large tract of the site usually remains under marshy water during the rainy season.

Though the work on the BRTS project is going on at the site, nothing has been done to clear the mess here. Even more than 10 years after getting the possession of the land from scores of wholesale fruit and vegetable dealers, the government has failed to develop it.

Unattended open space, dotted with partially demolished shops besides rubble strewn all over, the ground has developed pockets for rainwater to stagnate in the event of rain. Unhygienic conditions prevailing here are not only a health hazard, but also a haven for drug addicts and anti-social elements. A little shower worsens the situation.

Despite being a prime commercial land, the Old Sabzi Mandi is lying unused with garbage and filth covering the area near the Hall Gate, said a resident Naresh Kumar.

Another resident, Satinderjit Singh, said, keeping in view the close proximity of the land to Golden Temple, it is highly valuable. “It is a dichotomy that the government land is lying idle while an individual owning a much smaller piece of land situated at the next intersection from the Old Sabzi Mandi is earning a handsome money by allowing vendors to establish stalls to sell eatables," he said.

He said it was strange that the government did not seem to have taken any cognisance of the area after evacuating the wholesale vegetable merchants from the place.

It is worth mentioning here that the Old Sabzi Mandi was de-notified in 1995 and several shops were shifted to the new vegetable market at Vallah in 2004. Even then some fruit merchants still operate from the former location. The Municipal Corporation had taken the possession of the six acres land of the Old Sabzi Mandi in 2005.