Traders want shops in temporary bus stand

They also demand new bus stand under Smart City programme

TIRUNELVELI

Traders having their shops in the Palayamkottai bus stand downed shutters of their business establishments till 2.30 p.m. on Monday in protest against the Corporation’s order asking them to vacate their shops by December 19 to enable the reconstruction of the bus-terminus and the shops under the ‘Smart City’ programme.

The protesting traders also submitted a petition to Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish appealing to her to instruct the civic body to reconsider its order asking them to vacate the shops by December 19.

The traders said the Corporation’s Palayamkottai Zone officials on December 5 last issued a notice to all traders having business establishments in the Palayamkottai bus-stand asking them to vacate their shops belonging to the Corporation by December 19 to enable the demolition of the age-old structure and subsequent reconstruction of the bus terminus under the Union Government-funded ‘Smart City’ programme. The order asked the traders to surrender the Corporation’s shop allotment order, receipt for up-to-date payment of rent for the shops, family card or Aadhaar card by December 19 besides vacating the shops.

“The Corporation, without conducting any meeting with the tenants (shopkeepers) to discuss its decision to reconstruct the Palayamkottai bus stand after demolishing the existing structure, has asked all of us to close down our shops before December 19. Since all of us have borrowed hefty sum from the banks and the moneylenders to keep the business and our livelihood alive, we’re repaying the loan every day with what we get in the business. If the Corporation wants us to close down their shops within 15 days, our families will land in a deep trouble,” said the traders.

They said the Corporation had not given any assurance to the traders running the shops in the Palayamkottai bus stand for past several decades of giving the shops again once the reconstruction is over. The Corporation should give us shops on priority after the new bus stand is commissioned,” they said.