With the demand for shifting of the Gandhi Market to the outskirts of the city becoming an election issue, especially in Tiruchi East constituency, Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami’s promise to renovate the Gandhi Market has raised the hackles of civic activists who had been clamouring for the shifting of the market.
The Chief Minister, while campaigning in support of the AIADMK candidates at Marakkadai, close to the Gandhi Market, on Tuesday, had promised that the existing market would be renovated. Tourism Minister Vellamandi N.Natarajan, who is seeking re-election from Tiruchi East, has said the market would be retained at the same place. Some other candidates too had said the same.
While the Chief Minister’s latest promise has met with a cautious response from a section of traders, civic activists who had been pleading for the shifting of the market have not been amused.
Pointing to a pending court case on the issue, S.Pushpavanam, secretary, Consumer Protection Council, Tamil Nadu, contends that the market ought to be shifted. Wholesale markets should be shifted to a place outside cities/towns even as per The Tamil Nadu Specified Commodities Markets (Regulation of Location) Act, 1996, he said. Retail markets function in every locality, he pointed out and added that the council too had moved the High Court with a petition seeking the shifting of the entire market and it was expected to be numbered soon.
M.Sekaran, president, Federation of Consumer and Service Organisations, felt that though retail traders may be allowed to function after renovation of the market, the wholesale section must be shifted. His organisation too was planning to move the court if it was not done. The CM seems to have succumbed to the pressure mounted by the traders lobby, much against public interest.
A large number of people were affected due to the congestion in and around the market. “Earlier, even the traders had sought only a year to shift from the market,” he said.
Some the traders themselves are not too enthused about the Chief Minister’s promise, which, they say, has come a bit too late. “Though we believe his words, he could have said it much earlier when we met him several times on the issue,” observed M.K.Kamalakannan, president, Gandhi Market Vyabarigal Munnetra Sangam.
Although the Tiruchi Corporation had announced plans to renovate the market a few years ago under the Smart City Mission, it had not pursued the project subsequently. In the meantime, the district administration and the District Market Committee had made sporadic but unsuccessful attempts last year to shift traders of the market to the Central Market for Vegetables, Fruits and Flowers at Kallikudi on the outskirts of the city.
The market, situated about 12 km away from the city, off the Tiruchi-Madurai National Highway, was opened in September 2017 but had largely been lying in disuse owing to resistance from the traders, who contend it did not suit their needs and was too far away from the city.
Established on 9.79 acres with 830 shops, it was conceived when late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa represented the Srirangam Assembly constituency, in the wake of persistent demand for shifting the wholesale section of Gandhi Market to a more spacious location. It was built at a cost of over ₹65 crore with assistance from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.
For most part of last year, the market remained closed following imposition of lockdown in the wake of the pandemic and an interim directive of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court against reopening it.
The court, which had issued the interim directive on a public interest litigation, subsequently lifted it paving the reopening of the market in November.
The court has asked all stakeholders to file their response so that a final decision can be taken in this regard.
