Scores of shops and other encroachments were razed amidst heavy police presence in Premnagar market area on September 14 last year. Following the demolition undertaken in pursuance of High Court orders, the area is considerably free of encroachment.

However, some of those who lost their shops have put up temporary shops while some other shopkeepers have been demonstrating in support of their demand for alternate sites to set shops. In addition to this, some of the space vacated after demolition of the encroachments has been taken over by Vikram drivers, who now park their vehicles there.

About 40 shops were demolished fully while in other cases, the portions of shops encroaching on public land were demolished in Premnagar. Shop-owners in the market who lost their shops are worried for their future. Some of them made temporary shops while others are protesting in support of their demand for new shops.

The owners of 21 demolished shops have not set up temporary shops because they claim the district magistrate assured them verbally of new shops.

Premnath Malhotra who lost his shop is among those protesting. He said shopkeepers like him were based in the market for about 41 years. They were paying rent to the Mithi Beri Gram Panchayat and also paid taxes to the cantonment board.

He added given the High Court orders and the assurance given to them, they did not protest at the time of demolition but no action has been taken so far in their interests.

On the other hand, there are traders like Rajeev Talwar who have set up temporary shops. He said he had spent about Rs 70,000 to set up a temporary shop dealing in clothes and other items. He added police have taken photographs of the shopkeepers with their temporary shops for record. He too is concerned about his future.

Meanwhile, pedestrians and others who use the roads in this area daily are happy with major congestion now becoming a thing of the past. Some students said there was a time when road was jam-packed with shops and encroachments creating a traffic bottleneck. Demolition of the encroachments has made traffic smoother and resolved a major public inconvenience, they added.