Rohtak's Shouri Market shopkeepers remove encroachments on their own

Ravinder Saini

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Rohtak, May 8

The Municipal Corporation’s (MC) drive against encroachments on the congested city roads has started bearing fruit with a considerable number of traders in Shouri Market, touted as Asia’s biggest cloth market, removing steps and concrete platforms outside their shops on their own on Sunday. They had raised the platforms up to 4 feet on the road.

Interestingly, the encroachment removal work was carried out by the traders on war-footing by taking advantage of Sunday when the market remains shut. Labourers were seen demolishing steps and concrete platforms outside the shops on all main roads of the market. The traders were served notices for removing encroachments on their own over 10 days ago.

“Since the authorities are adamant on their stand of conducting an anti-encroachment drive in the market so, we decided to remove the platforms outside the shops on our own so as to minimise the losses. Moreover, after having a meeting with the authorities over the issue, the Traders’ Association of the market also called upon us to remove the encroachments to evade action,” said Krishan Lal, a cloth trader.

Harish Chander, another trader, said it was for the first time that the shopkeepers were being forced to demolish their steps and platform. “The process will cost between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 to every trader as they would have to get the repair work done after the removal of the encroachments. Around 50% of the traders on main roads in the market had removed the encroachments and the remaining are in a wait-and-watch mode,” he added.

Another trader, on anonymity, said the association had asked them to keep the platform maximum up to 2 feet to avoid any action but there were many of them who weren’t interested in removing their encroachments raised up to 4 feet on the road. “Will the MC authorities take action against them now,” he questioned.

Meanwhile, Gulshan Ishpuniyani, president, Shouri Cloth Market Association, said more than 250 traders whose shops were located on the main roads had removed the steps and platforms. “The remaining ones will also removed in coming days to stop the authorities from carrying out an anti-encroachment drive in the market as it not only causes heavy losses to the shopkeepers, but also wastes their time,” he added.

Decongesting city areas a priority

It’s a good step taken by the traders. Our team will visit the spot soon to take stock of the situation and will remove the remaining encroachments, as decongesting the markets is our priority. — Surender Goyal, land officer