Yusuf Sarai traders, PWD spar over broken footpaths

NEW DELHI: The footpaths in front of Yusuf Sarai Market seem to have been mysteriously broken overnight. This has led to a nightmarish experience for pedestrians, who have to walk along heavy traffic even as the public works department and Yusuf Sarai Market are embroiled in a blame game over the issue.
While PWD alleges the traders of the market demolished the footpaths last week, the traders said they had nothing to do with the incident and were being wrongly blamed for it.The PWD has also made a complaint with the Sadarjung Enclave police station regarding this issue.
“The incident took place on April 12, a holiday for Ram Navami. One of our staffers found the pavements demolished only in front of Yusuf Sarai Market. On asking around, we were told it had been done by the traders as they had earlier protested against construction of these pavements as it would limit their parking space. The restoration work will be carried out by us and we are hoping that some of the material can be re-used. The entire exercise of restoring the pavements will cost Rs 3-4 lakh,’’ said an official.
A footpath of 1.5m had been built between the service lane and the main carriageway for pedestrians. “We have not demolished the footpaths. Why would we do it? It is true that we had issues with the construction of the footpaths earlier, as it left no space for parking and was affecting our business, but we would not break the footpaths due to this. It is wrong on the part of PWD to blame us for this,’’ said Rajkumar Sharma, president of Yusuf Sarai traders’ association. The traders had also approached the Bhure Lal Committee over the construction of the footpaths.
Many traders in the market refused to comment on the incident saying that the footpaths had apparently been broken at night when all the shops in the market had shutdown. “We all live in other areas and this incident seems to have happened at night. We only saw the broken footpaths on Wednesday morning and do not know who is behind the incident,’’ said a trader.
Police said they had received a complaint on April 14, and were still investigating the incident. “We received a complaint recently and are looking into the matter. We will have to see who was behind the incident and what kind of equipment was used to break down the footpaths,’’ said a police officer.