Panjim sounding Board

It may be the answer to the daily grocery and fish and meat requirement but at Panjim’s municipal and fish market, the sights are anything but pretty. For a complex that is just over three years old, it’s surprising to see sights of paan stained walls and stinking garbage inside the market. 

The municipal market where vendors sell fruits, vegetables and other items began with bright futures of everything under one roof with pictures of Goa’s famous cartoonist Mario Miranda adorning the walls. Today however, his iconic sketches are barely visible in certain areas as red stains splatter the walls. The pathetic condition of the market is visible from the garbage that overspills from garbage bins placed around the vicinity. 

Fish selling begins early in the day but by mid-day as sales reduce, the smell of rejected and spoilt fish litter the area that has a bus stand not too far away. 

During the development of the first and second phases of the main market complex, vendors selling fish, beef and chicken were told they would be given place in the complex where they could sell their produce. 

But this project that was meant to be the third phase, never commenced. Several fishermen and women selling their daily catch have been around for years and most say they’re happy where they are and would rather sit in their current locations rather than wait for the government to develop new places for them. 

The Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP) who’ve long been crying over the lack of funds had in fact drawn up plans of incorporating the fish, beef and chicken vendors into the vegetable market. But as former CCP mayor said, unless irregularities in the first and second phase aren’t cleared, the third can never be in the picture.