Take up basic amenity work: Koyambedu traders
According to traders, the big market houses over 3,100 shops where vegetables, flowers and fruits are sold.
Chennai: The biggest Koyambedu market may be a huge Chennai's landmark, but when it comes to infrastructure, teh ground reality is very different. The decade old market complex received heavy footfalls on a daily basis, but it lacks even basic amenities such as drinking water and proper roads.
Traders point accusing fingers at Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) officials stating that even as they pay property tax worth crores of rupees, they are not aware of where the humongous amount of money goes. They also blamed the officials for turning a blind eye to works that are acutely needed in the premises.
According to traders, the big market houses over 3,100 shops where vegetables, flowers and fruits are sold. Moreover, over 500 lorries transporting such items reach the market and it would always be busy from dawn to till 10 am with a huge number of customers and retail traders thronging the complex.
"Yet, facilities like drinking water, toilets and parking are missing and roads in the premises are in poor condition," said K Ramanan, a trader. The situation becomes worse on rainy days. "If there is a heavy rain, water seeps through the floor and the entire area becomes muddy. Further, since officials failed to attend on repairing works, the leaky roofs pave the way for inundation," the trader complained.
Interestingly, the market premises have become a safe haven for cattle and one could see such stray cows wandering in the complex at all times. "While we pay a huge amount of tax, the state of things is beyond comprehension. What are the officials doing after collecting property tax? If you collect tax, you should use it in a proper way by establishing basic amenities," said another trader, on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, traders are raising doubts over whether Chennai Corporation or CMDA is maintaining the complex. V. R Soundararajan, president of Koyambedu Vegetable Wholesale Traders Association and a member of Market Management Committee, speaking to Deccan Chronicle, said that some months ago they had handed over property tax of Rs 10.50 crore to the Kodambakkam zonal officials.
"However, we received an RTI reply, which stated that the Corporation has not received amount of property tax from traders. When further pressed, we came to know that the amount has reached CMDA. There was no proper communication regarding this," rued Soundararajan.
He also noted that whichever agency was maintaining the market, there are no works relating to basic amenities. "Where is the huge amount collected as property tax," was his terse question.
Even consumers express dissatisfaction. "We need to trudge to reach the market complex due to patchy roads. Moreover, there is no parking facility in the area," said M Neelakandan, a resident of Virugambakkam.
When contacted, a senior official, CMDA, maintained that they were gradually taking up basic works. "We are regularly taking up maintenance works and a proposal relating to constructing toilets and laying roads has been sent to the concerned department," he said while denying allegations of misappropriation of funds.