The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : State Agmark lab to be shifted to Maradu

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Thursday, Sep 16, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

State Agmark lab to be shifted to Maradu

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, SEPT. 15. The State Agmark Grading Laboratory, now working out of a premise in Thammanam, will be shifted soon to the Agricultural Urban Wholesale Market at Maradu, near here.

The market complex, built at a cost of Rs. 19 crores with assistance from the European Union, was inaugurated in 1999 but has been lying idle since. The announcement of the Agmark Laboratory being shifted to the new market complex was made on Tuesday by the District Collector, A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, who is also the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Maradu market.

Testing laboratory

He was speaking at the inauguration of a weighbridge at the market complex. Mr. Hanish said there was a plan to let the Dairy Development Department set up a testing laboratory on the same premises. The laboratory is an initiative of the district panchayat. A sum of Rs. 3 crores has been allocated for the purpose.

The Minister for Fisheries, Dominic Presentation, inaugurated the function where the weighbridge, set up in 1999, was declared functional. The facility would be open to public vehicles.

Mr. Presentation said the market had the potential to be utilised by both farmers and the traders.

Need for dialogue

The District Collector said there was need to open dialogues and discussions with the people concerned, especially vegetable traders, on the future of the market.

He said a market of a similar nature had begun functioning in Muvattupuzha.

There are 136 stalls in the market complex. Although 17 traders had booked space in the complex in 1999, all expect three have taken their deposits back.

The president of the district panchayat, K.B. Mohammedkutty, the president of the Maradu Panchayat, K. V. Shanmayi, the Vyttila block panchayat president, V. Jayakumar, the marketing director of the State Agriculture Department, P.P. Gopi, and the member of the ward in the Panchayat Council, N.V. Xavier, were among those who spoke at the function.

Plea for land

The Maradu panchayat and the district panchayat presidents have appealed to Mr. Presentation and the District Collector that at least three acres of land should be made available to the panchayat for its requirements.

Ms. Shanmayi said the panchayat did not even have enough space to promote small industrial units.

Besides, about 1.6 acres of purampoke land, the right over which is vested with the local panchayat, had been acquired by the Greater Cochin Development Authority in Maradu, it said.

This land could be returned to the panchayat for its purposes.

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