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Shopkeepers in Ludhiana protest against serving of CLU notices
Protesters said notices were being served to shops that were established before CLU norms were notified
Shopkeepers of the Ghumar Mandi area kept their shops shut from 10am to 2pm on Wednesday in protest against the serving of change of land use (CLU) notices by the municipal corporation (MC).
As per information, the civic body had sealed two shops on Monday after their owners failed to pay the CLU charges. Following this, the shopkeepers held a protest from Aarti chowk to Bhai Bala chowk. The shopkeepers of the National road area had also closed their shops on the call of the protesters.
The shopkeepers rued that CLU charges do not apply to shops that were established decades back and are supposed to be collected before the establishment of shops.
Pawan Batra, president of Ghumar Mandi market association, said, “Why should the shopkeepers pay the CLU charges when the registry of the properties has been done at and property tax is paid at commercial rates. We are already reeling under losses due to the ongoing pandemic and the civic body is adding to our woes.”
“Most of the shops in Ghumar Mandi were established even before the CLU norms came into existence. We had also conducted a meeting with mayor Balkar Sandhu and area councilor-cum- Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation chairman Gurpreet Gogi in the mid of September. The mayor had assured us that no action would be taken before the discussion of the issue in the meeting of the MC general house. But MC has started sealing the shops,” said Batra.
The shopkeepers said that if the corporation fails to roll back the notice, they will raise an agitation in the entire city. Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal also extended support to the Ghumar Mandi market association.
Sunil Mehra, general secretary of Beopar Mandal, said, “We will stand by the Ghumar Mandi shopkeepers and MC will have to roll back notices.”
As per MC officials, around 1,600 notices have been served to shopkeepers across the city. Many have already submitted the fee.
Earlier, senior deputy mayor Sham Sundar Malhotra had also objected to the notices served by MC.
MC joint commissioner Kulpreet Singh said, “Shopkeepers will have to pay the CLU charges as per the norms. For facilitating them, we are also providing the chance to submit the amount in installments.”
