No more selling from floor mats

Vendors at Santnagar Sunday Bazaar now required to sell their goods on wooden platforms for hygiene purposes.

LAHORE: The market committee of the Santnagar Sunday Bazaar has made it a requirement for vendors to sell their commodities on wooden platforms for hygiene purposes, said Shahid Hussain, administrator of the Santnagar Market committee.

Hussain said that each of the vendors was issued notices last week about the decision, which is to be implemented from October 24. “Vendors without wooden planks will not be allowed to sell in the bazaar,” he said.

He told The Express Tribune that the initiative would make it one of the most hygienic bazaars of the city. “Not only will it become cleaner, but also modern and better,” he added.

Vendors, on the other hand, complained about the new requirement. They said that they had not been given enough time to arrange for the platforms.

One week was not enough to implement the decision, they said. “This week we had to rent the platforms. This adversely affected our sales,” said Zakaria, a vegetable vendor at the Sunday Bazaar.

He said that the people who rented out the platforms charged Rs100 per day. “This is unfair. The market committee or the city government should provide everything,” he added.

Some vendors at the bazaar said that their profits this week fell by up to 40 per cent. They complained that besides the rent, they also had to pay for the transportation of these platforms.

Another vendor, Muhammed Ali, criticised the market committee for not providing the vendors with the facilities. “We should be allowed to keep vegetables in straw bags or spread on mats,” he said. “The complaint is mainly a business issue. The vendors just want to make an adequate profit,” he added.

Zarah, a shopper at the Sunday Bazaar, said that it was easier to shop when the fruits and vegetables were spread on the ground. “Hygiene plays a major role, but why should the vendors be paying more when they can easily put the vegetables on mats or in their bags?”

Another shopper said that other major consumer concerns were price and quality. He said he welcomed the market committee’s move, as long as the price of commodities remained stable.

A vendor selling tomatoes said she had paid Rs400 for four stalls. She said that the committee was being very strict, though it was the first day of the implementation of the rule.

Hussain said that the vendors were not charged for setting up stalls in the Sunday Bazaar so they shouldn’t complain. He said that other Sunday Bazaars had been using wooden platforms for more than four years. “We will make sure that the vendors do not violate the rule. They will not be allowed to sit in the bazaar otherwise,” he added.

Vendors at the Shadman Sunday Bazaar said that the rule had improved the hygiene of the bazaar. They said that the DCO had subsidised the cost for each vendor.

Mohammed Hanif of the Shadman Market committee said that the committee ensured that the consumers get hygienic supplies and lower prices than in the open market.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2010.