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New vegetable market in a soup over space; Traders oppose move to divide stalls
The space allotted to each stall owner at the new vegetable market in Peliyagoda. Traders say the 6'x12' space is hardly enough to keep their daily stock
A controversy has arisen regarding the allocation of stalls at the new Manning Market complex in Peliyagoda, with some stall owners accusing the Urban Development Authority (UDA) of arbitrarily reducing the stall space allocated for them to accommodate more stalls.
Initially, the UDA had informed stall owners that 460 wholesale business owners at the Pettah Manning Market will each get a 12×12 foot space stall at the new market complex in Peliyagoda. This number, however, suddenly shot up to 750, said Lal Hettige (57), President of the Manning Market Podu Welanda Samithiya. He said the UDA had told them that the reason for the addition of nearly 300 more stalls was that some fruit stall owners who had originally been allocated stalls on the upper floor had asked for stalls on the ground floor.
To resolve the issue, the UDA had informed them it had divided the 12×12 stalls in two, Mr Hettige told the Sunday Times.
Mr Hettige said they were puzzled as to how so many stalls had suddenly been added to the list and insisted that dividing the allocated stall space in two was wholly unjustified.
Traders association chief Lal Hettige
Stall owner D.R. Siriwardena
D.R. Siriwardena (43), a vegetable stall owner, pointed out that dividing a 12×12 foot in two, left only a 6×12 foot space for them and the space was severely inadequate for them to work in.
“I get about 60 to 100 sacks of vegetables each day but some stall owners get more than 300. The length of one sack of cabbages is about 5.5 feet. The weighing scale alone needs a 2×3 feet space. We also need a small cupboard to keep the money and documents. How can we do all this in such a small, cramped space?” he asked.
Mr Siriwardena pointed out that though the 12×12 stall has been divided into two, the stall will still only have one plug point. There is also only one ladder between both stalls to access the store room upstairs.
Fruit stall owner W.C.K. Kumara (35), said they too have issues at the complex. He explained that normally, they would receive about 15,000 kilograms of fruits a day, but that only about 500 kilograms of fruits can be stored in the space provided in the new stalls.
Meanwhile, Pettah Manning Market traders began a protest at Colombo Fort on Thursday (10) demanding that stalls at the new market complex be allocated in a fair manner. The protest was called off on Friday after they held talks with Urban Development State Minister Nalaka Godahewa and UDA officials.
Dr Godahewa assured them that all those who maintained stalls at the Pettah market complex would be allocated stalls at the new Peliyagoda complex. He also insisted that stall owners would get more space than what they had in the previous complex.
Manning market traders staged a protest last week seeking the President's intervention