LAHORE, Nov 6: A plethora of rodents and crows picking on the remnants of poultry, blood spattered walls and floors, and the putrid stench of rubbish festering in sewage.

These are just some of the things that combine to make Tollinton Market, one of the city’s foremost poultry bazaars.

A walk through the market reveals that virtually no sanitary practices are being followed, while a drain running behind the market is overflowing with rubbish, adding to the disturbing assault on the senses.

With over a dozen shops, hundreds of birds and animals, and customers lining up in droves, the market poses a serious health risk to those living in its vicinity and many others who visit it everyday.

According to the World Health Organization, it is under such conditions that avian influenza (bird flu) may be transmitted to humans.

Anwar, a shopkeeper in the market, pointed to a foot-long dead rat and said: “These are being attracted by the rubbish tip behind the market.”

But, according to Tariq Zaman, the District Officer of the City District Government Lahore, things really aren’t all that bad.

“If you had gone a few months back you would have seen things even worse,” he said, claiming that CDGL teams, in collaboration with union workers, were actually making a difference through a clean-up operation.

When asked why the shopkeepers had not yet been served with notices under Section 16 of the Pakistan Environment Protection Act (PEPA) 1997, he claimed: “The ultimate responsibility lies with the union workers.”

Further, he said meat was not being sold at the market and that only live animals were traded – contrary to the ground reality.

The decision to not take any punitive measures is all the more puzzling given the fact that poultry farms are routinely brought to the book for unsanitary practices and tried in the Environment Tribunal.

Zaman said he was working on building a waste enclosure, and had formed eight-member teams, each consisting of six union members, one member from the CDGL and one from its Solid Waste Management wing, to improve the market’s condition. — ISSAM AHMED