RAAC at Ukkadam,A great move
Members of the Residents’ Awareness Association of Coimbatore and Coimbatore Corporation officials discussing with traders ways to clean the fish market at Ukkadam under the association’s Alagana Kovai project.Ukkadam- the point of entry to the Coimbatore city that smells of rotting fish waste may soon undergo a change if traders adopt safe disposal methods that are being stressed by the Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore. After covering more than 30 residential layouts and also the Flower Bazaar and the Tyagi Kumaran Market, the association’s Alagana Kovai project for a clean city has entered what is probably one of the toughest areas, the fish markets in Ukkadam.A retail fish market near the bus stand, an adjoining fruit market and a wholesale fish market near a lorry yard are the focus of the new programme.Even as the Coimbatore Corporation has drawn up plans to provide a good building and drainage facilities in the markets, the association wants to propagate the concept of self-discipline in the disposal of fish waste and rotten fruits.
“The preparatory work for clean markets is already on,” says association vice-president G. Soundararajan. “We held an awareness programme for the traders on June 25 and 26 to teach them safe disposal methods. We showed them how to store the waste in reusable plastic bags instead of throwing it into the drainage or along roads or water bodies,” he says.The two-day meeting involved all the traders, including those who put up their one-bench stalls along the Palakkad Main Road near the bus stand. The association’s concern over the situation largely reflects the unhygienic conditions that the fish waste is causing.
Fish is a form of food and it should be sold in hygienic conditions. What prevails now can hardly be called hygienic, according to Mr. Soundararajan.A formal start to the traders themselves cleaning up the entire area will be made on June 29.Mayor R. Venkatachalam and City Police Commissioner C.K. Gandhirajan will inaugurate the programme, he says.Mr. Soundararajan points out that a lot of waste is dumped along the Big Tank (on the road to Perur) near the retail markets.
“We want to end this by making the traders aware of the problems they cause to the surroundings by such an unsafe practice,” he says.According to him, the garbage problem in the city can be worse by at least 50 per cent if many people are not co-operating.There are people who store waste at home and wait for the Corporation workers to collect it. Some others dump it into the garbage containers placed in their area by the civic body.If these people also join many others in dumping waste on the road just because the workers have not turned up, things will only worsen. It is this need to store and dispose of waste safely that should be conveyed to the traders also.“The message is: we are responsible for the waste we generate,” he says.
