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Chandigarh’s Sector 22 gets a breather after eviction drive
Vendors count restricted to 97 at Shastri market that had over 2,000 vendors earlier
The city’s famous Shastri market finally got a breather as the municipal corporation (MC) removed all illegal vendors during its eviction drive on Friday.
The market used to have over 2,000 vendors on any given day and all its corridors remained fully encroached. But after the drive on Friday, the parking lots and passage to the market were all clear.
Now, only vendors who have been alloted the 97 alloted slots will be eligible to carry on with their business.
Selling goods anywhere other that the vending zones will be considered illegal now and will liable for strict action, said MC chief KK Yadav.
“Today is the real Diwali for us,” said Ashwini Kumar, general secretary of Shastri market welfare association.
“For long, vendors encroached walkways, public paths, corridors and open spaces in front of booths, shops and showrooms here, creating not only public nuisance but also by eating up our business. We are happy that they have been removed now,” he said.
“The real challenge now is to sustain it and we will keep in touch with MC for this. We will also have to streamline the parking area and market passage so that our footfall can be increased,” he said.
Surinder Kumar, who is the vice-president of the association, said that there are vendors who still try to sneak in. “A strict vigil is required now,” he said.
Area councillor Ravi Kant Sharma said that he welcomes the MC’s drive and he will ensure that there is no more encroachment here now.
CURTAINS DOWN ON 40-YR-OLD CHICK MARKET
For 40 years, over two dozen vendors had been running a small market selling window blinds, curtains and outdoor chicks over the public land adjoining the government dispensary in Sector 22. They had clientele all over the tricity. The one-kanal park opposite the dispensary and the pedestrian pavement were fully under their control.
The blatant encroachment that was ignored by municipal corporation (MC) for decades on was one of the very first targets of the municipal corporation that held its biggest drive to evict vendors on Friday morning.
Vendors sought leniency and even told officers that this would render them jobless but the demolition did not stop.
MC commissioner KK Yadav personally monitored the drive and was seen stationed at the spot as early as 8am.
Yadav said this market was a picture of unabated encroachment of government land and it can’t be allowed to continue.
By the time the drive was over, as many as 25 trucks were filled with broken structures made of bamboos and other makeshift material. “I never knew there was a park here when this market was in existence. MC should now restore it and make it useable for public,” reacted Sandeep Kumar, a helper at Government dispensary after MC’s drive.
