Koyambedu traders to pay fines for littering

CHENNAI: In a bid to make Koyambedu market litter-free, the Marketing Management Committee is distributing bins to traders and also planning to make it mandatory for them to dump the waste in the bin or pay fines.This decision by MMC comes in the wake of a recent Express report highlighting the pathetic state of Koyambedu market. MMC officials said on Monday that they would be initiating action against the traders if they failed to dump garbage in the bins. “First, we will create awareness by distributing pamphlets and then impose the regulation within this month,” a top MMC official said. Each bin has a capacity of 100 litres.Interestingly, a similar plan to initiate action against the traders by the previous DMK government had failed to take off.  Around 70 per cent  traders were issued bins then. “The bins vanished with traders or workers taking them home,” a trader said.Currently, MMC officials are distributing bins to the remaining 30 per cent traders and officials say they will be asking the shopkeepers who were provided the bins earlier to keep them in front of their shops. “Now we are issuing the bins with shop numbers written on them. If it goes missing, it is the responsibility of the shop owners to buy a new one or pay fines,” said the official.Sources confided that it was due to the lack of initiative by the traders as well as authorities that resulted in failure of the earlier move at Asia’s largest perishable goods market complex. To a query on trespassing by stray animals in the market, a MMC official said 10 cows were seized last week and owners fined. “Last night, five cows were released forcibly. We are planning to initiate police action against the owner,” he said.Meanwhile, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has stated that the government has sanctioned Rs 33.63 crore to relay the roads. The work will start soon as the tenders have been floated, CMDA sources said. “The existing roads within the market are also being planned to be widened to avoid traffic snarls. Besides, plans are underway to clear blockages in stormwater drains to overcome waterlogging during monsoon,” a CMDA official said.