Delhi Lieutenant (LG) Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Wednesday inspected Azadpur Mandi following complaints about flying dust and severe lack of sanitation. The mandi is regulated by Delhi Agriculture Marking Board (DAMB) - Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) of the Delhi Government.
Giving details about his visit, officials said Saxena went there following repeated requests and complaints by different stakeholders including the traders, regarding severe lack of sanitation, public amenities, parking woes and inadequate fire safety arrangements among others.
The most outstanding thing that came out during the visit was the prevalence of huge amount of flying road dust and smoke from trucks plying to and from the Mandi, which was adding to the already alarming air quality emergency in the city.
Saxena took grave exception to the situation and wondered as to what the Development Department of GNCTD, under which the DAMB-APMC operate, had been doing for the last about 09 years.
He expressed shock at the fact that the Minister in-charge of the Mandi was also the Environment Minister of Delhi and yet such a polluting hellhole was present in the middle of the Capital. The LG said that he will take up this issue with the Chief Minister in their next meeting.
During the visit, LG walked through different blocks of the Fruits and Vegetables Mandi and expressed grave displeasure at the hellish condition in which thousands of traders, more than a lakh of labour and visitors to the Mandi were forced to live.
The LG was anguished to see overflowing sewage, open defecation, stray animals, garbage all around and the stench in the Mandi. Azadpur Mandi is one of the largest in the world that witnesses the movement of over 20,000 trucks and receives a footfall of over a lakh every day.
Several local traders as well as traders’ body also put forward their grievances to the LG saying they were forced to work in unhygienic and pathetic conditions owing to government apathy that posed a grave risk to their health and lives.
The majority of the complaints pertained to non-removal of garbage from the Mandi and acute mismanagement in parking of trucks and other smaller goods vehicles entering the market frequently. Saxena expressed shock at the inhuman conditions in which more than a lakh of labour and traders were forced to live and pulled up accompanying officials over the lack of toilets, roads and drinking water in the Mandi premises.
The traders in the vegetables Mandi told the LG that there was just one entry / exit for the trucks which led to severe congestion and a huge pile up of trucks. They said this posed a serious threat in case of any emergency like the recent fire incidents in the Mandi. Some other traders complained that the high mast lights inside the Mandi were mostly non-functional and a large part of the market sinks into darkness after the sunset.
Having experienced the ground situation first hand and taking a serious note of the traders’ complaints, LG directed the concerned officers to take immediate remedial measures to address the concerns raised by the traders.
He asked officials to chalk out the priorities in consultation with all stakeholders and prepare a concrete action plan within a week. While directing the MCD officials to immediately clean the heaps of garbage and C&D Waste from the area, the LG asked them to personally monitor the sanitation work and apprise the LG Secretariat about the progress of works along with the photographs.