The Hindu

Mangalore, Dec 25: The stench from a bus shelter at the city bus-stand, unhygienic conditions at the fish market, fruit sellers occupying the area meant for vehicle parking inside the city bus-stand, and the poorly maintained bus-stand was what J. Krishna Palemar, Minister in charge of Dakshina Kannada, saw when he went for an inspection on Thursday.

The fish market and the city bus-stand are near the State Bank of India bus terminus here.

When the Minister visited the city bus-stand, he was taken aback to see the area meant for parking of private vehicles being occupied by fruit vendors. He came to know that the bidder who had been awarded the contract for collecting the parking fee had sublet it to fruit vendors.

The Minister took some corporation officials to task for allowing such activities. He directed them to get the vendors evicted on Friday. He asked them call for fresh bids if any contractor failed to follow the contract terms.

Women selling fish in the fish market adjacent to the city bus-stand complained that the Health officials of the corporation had failed to make the contractor maintain cleanliness both in the fish market and the city bus-stand.

The Minister took Health Officer of the corporation Manjaiah Shetty to task.

Mr. Palemar instructed the corporation engineers to clean the shelter and the bus-stand.