HGP Nightly News – Local Government Minister Priya Manickchand has pressed officials to bring the long-running restoration of Kitty Market to an end, declaring that vendors and shoppers cannot be left waiting indefinitely.
During a walkthrough of the market, Manickchand questioned why the project had taken so long and asked officials to identify precisely what was preventing its completion.
“It is undesirable to have any project take this long,” she said. “A lot of people have been inconvenienced, not only vendors, but people who want to come and shop at the market.”
“We can’t keep prolonging this for years.”
The minister instructed officials to prepare a detailed list of the remaining work and address each item with the Georgetown Mayor and City Council. She said the project needed to move from promises and plans to actual delivery.
Her inspection revealed concerns extending beyond the pace of construction. She questioned access through parts of the building, the availability of water, leaking areas and drainage near vendors selling food.
Manickchand warned that the market could not be reopened without reliable access to basic utilities. If vendors could not obtain water inside, she said, they would have little choice but to continue operating along the roadway.
She also objected to exposed drainage near food-vending areas.
“You can’t have this leaking. She’s selling food,” Manickchand told officials. “You have to have some kind of covered drainage going on here. This is not an option.”
The minister also heard complaints about the allocation of stalls inside the restored market. Some longstanding vendors claimed that the process had not been fair and that they remained uncertain about where they would be placed.
Manickchand said stalls must be distributed through a transparent and equitable process.
“It has to be a fair process, how people are awarded the stalls in there,” she said.
She questioned how the existing allocations had been made and acknowledged that fairness was among the complaints raised during the visit.
One vendor told the minister she had been selling in the area for 33 years, while another said she had spent approximately four decades there.
Manickchand told officials that vendors could not simply be ordered to remove their goods from the roadside without being offered suitable alternatives.
“You can’t just tell her to pack up her goods and not give her a space,” she said.
The available spaces must also reflect how vendors operate. Someone selling different types of goods, she noted, may require an arrangement that allows the business to function without creating another obstruction outside.
Her remarks exposed the practical difficulty of reopening a market after years of delay. Completing the physical structure is only part of the job. Water, sanitation, drainage, safe access and a credible system for assigning stalls must also be in place.
Manickchand called for the outstanding work to be identified methodically and pursued with urgency.
