Bhubaneswar, June 25: The municipal corporation collects Rs 3.5 lakh a month from its 11 daily markets across the city from traders but does little for their maintenance.

Unit-I Daily Market, the oldest in the city, is a glaring example of this neglect with piles of garbage, damaged and stinking drains, encroachment and unplanned parking.

Niharika Nanda, a homemaker said: "At times, it is very difficult to enter the market from the side lanes as the garbage, stray cattle, encroachment by shop owners and the lack of restriction on the vehicles including two-wheelers create a mess."

The BMC had launched a cleanliness plan with collection of user fees from traders to make the place clean. But the plan is yet to be implemented. In fact, there was a plan to collect between Rs 100 and Rs 1,000 as users fee from vendors so that cleanliness could be ensured. The civic body was planning to provide dustbins to all registered vendors, but nothing has been done yet.

General secretary of Unit-I Daily Market Traders' Association Gayadhar Swain said: "Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is yet to keep its promises. Regular cleaning has not started and dustbins are yet to be provided."

An office-bearer of Raw Vegetables Traders' Association Kabiraj Swain said: "Almost 75 per cent shoppers depend on this market in the city that was built in 1948. The civic body should maintain the surroundings." There are plans to construct a multi-storey market with parking provisions in place of the existing vegetable market with an investment of around Rs 100 crore. However, organising funds for the cash-starved civic body seems to be a difficult task.

The civic body will not demolish the old "Gol market" or circular market, the oldest building of the Unit-I Market and convert it to a heritage "haat" in the line of Delhi Haat in the country's capital and Ekamra Haat in Bhubaneswar.

Assistant commissioner (markets) Md Ishaq said: "The modernisation plan of the Unit-I Market is in the pipeline and once the land is made available after demolition of some government quarters, it will start."

Speaking on the cleanliness drive, he said: "We have engaged a private vendor and will ask the agency to streamline the work. Once the mandis of the raw vegetables are transferred to the new proposed wholesale mandi near Patrapada, the market will have a cleaner atmosphere."

The general secretary of the Unit-I Daily Market Traders' Association said: "The tenders for repair and maintenance work are getting delayed and the civic body has to ensure that the basic work is done till the renovation begins for the new complex."

The civic body manages markets in Unit-I, Unit-II, Unit-III, Unit-IV, Unit-VI, BJB Nagar, Gandamunda, Siripur, VSS Nagar, Lingaraj markets and the kiosks near BJB Nagar.