Agra’s sweet makers made to pay sanitation fee
By IANSTuesday, November 30, 2010
AGRA - Makers of Agra’s trademark petha sweet were Tuesday slapped a monthly charge of Rs.3,000 by the municipal corporation for disposal of the waste generated by their units.
Municipal officials, along with an army of sanitation workers and police, visited the main petha market at Noori Darwaza and put pressure on the sweet makers to sign an agreement with the civic agency for paying the monthly fee for cleaning the area.
For the past two months, the petha makers, mostly concentrated in the Noori Darwaza area of the Taj city, were dilly-dallying and trying to avoid signing the agreement with the corporation.
The municipal corporation had fixed Nov 30 as the deadline for the sweet makers to sign the sanitation fee agreement.
A corporation official said in the evening 50 petha makers have signed the agreement and have paid the monthly fee.
The money collected by the local body would be used to deploy additional men and machines for cleaning the area.
The local residents have long been complaining of unhygenice conditions created by the petha units.
According to administration officials, there are more than 300 petha units in the area.
