Shopkeepers hold protest, allege they were not issued notice before demolition Jalandhar, November 17 Following the Punjab and Haryana High Court orders, employees of the Municipal Corporation (MC) here on Sunday swung into action and carried out a demolition drive in Rainak Bazaar. The decades-old famous Tikki Wala Chowk was completely razed by the MC team under stiff opposition from the area shopkeepers. At around 3 am, officials of the tehbazari team led by Joint Commissioner Harcharan Singh, tehbazari superintendent Mandeep Singh and other officials, accompanied by over 150 cops from different police stations, reached the venue and began the demolition drive. Demolishing all the vending carts, the team even destroyed the raw material and other goods stored by the vendors and shopkeepers. Soon after receiving the information about the demolition drives, the shopkeepers protested against the civic body for taking action at a selected portion of the Rainak Bazaar. Watching their carts and goods gutted in the debris, the shopkeeper started crying on the spot and continued their protest till the morning. Following this, opposition political leaders also visited the spot, stated the vendors. Raising anti-government slogans, the agitated shopkeepers rued that the demolition drive had left more than 200 people jobless, who were making their bread from vending carts only. Pradeep Kumar, who was running his famous Shoki Tikki Wala cart was shattered after it was demolished in the drive. He was serving the potato-tikkis in the chowk for the past 12 years and before that it was managed by his father for more than three decades. “I somehow managed to retrieve my utensils from a nearby garbage dump, where the civic body workers had dropped all the remnants of our demolished shops. Even our stoves, cooking cylinders and raw materials were taken away”, added, hopeless Pradeep, who was feeding his family of 12 by selling tikkis only. Likewise, Rajinder Singh, who resides in the market, said, all the goods he had kept for Sunday sale were torn in pieces in the demolition drive. Having suffered a loss of around Rs 1.25 lakh, Rajinder stated, the money earned from the previous day sale, that he had kept in his cart’s locker was also scattered in the drive. He used to sell the garments in the chowk from past 25 years. The shopkeepers also stated that they were not given any prior warning before the demolition drive so that they could have replaced their costly items from their shops. Meanwhile, visitors who had come for shopping in the market were equally surprised to see no tikkis and charts being served. Officialspeak All the vendors and shopkeepers were told to remove their encroachments several times, and last month, even announcements were made on rickshaws to warn the vendors against strict action. All shops in the Tikki Wala Chowk were not only illegally occupied but also were placed under a high power electrical transformer, posing a serious threat to human lives. Mayor Jagadish Raja said the chowk was located in the centre of Rainik Bazar. It was necessary to demolish the illegally erected shops for the smooth movement of emergency vehicles in the market. —Mandeep Singh, Superintendent

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