The Kamapalli fish market in Berhampur. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, June 28: Residents of the city will be relieved from stinking odour as the fish market at Kamapalli, situated at the heart of the city, is to be shifted soon following public demand.

The market, which makes a daily transaction of one tonne fish, has been running at the place for more than 40 years.

Interestingly, the market runs along the approach road to the district judge court and on the newly built railway overbridge. “As fish is a perishable item, it produces bad odour and causes pollution. We must see that no fish market runs on a busy road. The place must be properly cleaned and proper sanitation is maintained. Condition of the market at Kamapalli is unhygienic and it should be shifted to an alternative place immediately,” said Sisir Padhi, president of the Ganjam Bar Association.

“The association had appealed several times earlier to shift this market, but in vain,” he said.

However, the district administration has recently decided to shift the market. “We discussed in details about the issue at tehsildar’s office and visited some sites which we considered as alternatives,” said local MLA Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik.

The other persons who had visited the sites included mayor Shiba Shankar Das, tehsildar Shatrughna Kar, sub-divisional police officer Sarat Kumar Mohapatra, executive engineer Asim Mishra and city health officer Dr Subhakanta Das. They visited a place near the rail line from the Berhampur jail to industrial estate and another place near the industrial training institute.

The fish market was inaugurated more than one decade ago amid strong protest from advocates and people. However, local councillor Bhagaban Gantayat introduced the privatisation of sanitation in the market.

“We are in the business since long and we will not vacate the place unless the authorities provide us a suitable alternative place,” said Laxmi Amma, who has been selling fish in the market for the last two decades. Most of the vendors are visibly agitated over the decision to shift the market. “The administration should have made some efforts for our rehabilitation before eviction. We would fight it out to the last,” they said.

Earlier, the administration had evicted the vegetable vendors on the stretch from Jail Road to Kamapalli in the first phase and from the railway overbridge in the second phase. Some of the vegetable vendors evicted from Jail Road were settled at Mardarajpur vending zone in front of the M.K.C.G. Medical College and Hospital. The vendors evicted from the railway overbridge were also resettled at a ground adjacent to the vending zone.