Dehradun: Even as the urban development minister on Wednesday claimed in the state assembly that the government will rehabilitate those whose homes have been demolished under the court-ordered demolition drive by providing homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the commercial complexes that were built by the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) and shops allotted in them still remain vacant.Till now, MDDA has built two complexes, one near the Clock Tower and another near the Dispensary Road. While the complex at Clock Tower was completed in 2011, the other was finished in 2015. But many shops in these complexes are still vacant.An MDDA official said that had the authority auctioned the shops in these complexes, they would have got more revenue. “The complex is at Clock Tower which is one of the prime locations in the city but the shops are still lying vacant. Had we auctioned these shops then, we would have generated good revenue,” a MDDA official said.A spot visit by TOI to the complex at Clock Tower revealed that while these shops have already been allotted to various traders, they have refused to move in and continued to run their shops at the earlier locations.TOI spoke with a trader on Chakrata Road some part of whose shop was demolished during the Road widening after which he was allotted a shop in the complex. “Yes, we were allotted a shop in the complex but my shop on Chakrata Road is known to my customers. If I move to the complex, my business will be affected. I am okay with running my business in a small shop as long as it is running well.”While MDDA officials didn’t have an exact number of the shops in the complex at Clock Tower, they said that the number will be around 300. MDDA vice-chairman Ashish Srivastava said, “We allot them the shops but if they refuse to move in, we don’t have any byelaw to deal with the situation. Also, if they continue to run their shops at the earlier spot where the land use of the area is commercial, we cannot act against them either.”

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