Gole Market shopkeepers resist restoration plan

The shopkeepers are angry at New Delhi Municipal Council’s (NDMC) plan to relocate them on the pretext of redevelopment, reports HT Correspondent.

Plans to redevelop the 97-year-old Gole Market have hit a hurdle.

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On Wednesday, shopkeepers of the market downed shutters to protest against the redevelopment plan.

The shopkeepers are angry at New Delhi Municipal Council’s (NDMC) plan to relocate them on the pretext of redevelopment.

Shopkeepers claimed that in 2006, NDMC’s Deputy Chief Architect, in his response to a Right to Information query, had stated that they would not be displaced during the 54-week redevelopment project.

“The civic body is now hell bent on evicting all shopkeepers. They are now non-committal about our dislocation being temporary or permanent,” said Narayan Shamnani, president of Gole Market Merchants Association.

However NDMC refuted the traders’ claims.

“Gole Market is a heritage building and we want to restore it, hence no commercial activity can be allowed. We might build a small museum there in future but giving the market back to the traders is out of the question,” said a senior NDMC official.