With Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) taking no measures to evict illegal vendors from the Market Building area of Unit II, nearly 115 permanent traders doing businesses at the building under the banner of the Central Market Association (CMA) will go on an indefinite strike by closing down their shops from Monday (September 2).
“We will organsie a rally on Monday and submit a memorandum to the Chief Minister highlighting our issues and the apathetic attitude of BMC and other concerned authorities,” said CMA secretary Pradyumna Kumar Jena.
“On August 25, we served a seven-day ultimatum to the BMC urging it to evict the illegal vendors whose whereabouts are neither known to the BMC nor to us. Due to the heavy presence of the encroachers on the footpath and rest-sheds of the market building mobility of the shoppers have been blocked literally. As a result, customers, mostly senior citizens, women and physically-challenged persons, are encountering great difficulties,” added Jena.
All the civic amenities are in a state of defunct or damaged due to these encroachers in spite of the General Administration (GA) record vide PWC on WP(C) No 18513/11, Plot No 131,143,146 and 1186 earmarking it as a road, rued Jena.
“The most alarming aspect is that in an eventuality of fire hazard, the fire brigade vehicles cannot reach the place of occurrence because of road blocking,” warned Jena.