Reopening of shops causes controversy

MANGALURU: A total eight of shops in the Surathkal temporary market, which had created entrances illegally by defacing road-facing walls built by the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC), have resumed business on Thursday.
After the old Surathkal market was demolished to make way for a multi-storey shopping complex, traders and vendors were shifted to a temporary market nearby.However, MCC ensured that none of the shops in this market faced the road in order to ensure a level-playing field to all vendors. However, these eight shops had allegedly broken open the wall and made entrances facing the road.
Surprisingly, MCC officials who had sealed these shops in October for the violation, themselves opened the shops. Babu Naik, assistant revenue officer, MCC, said the decision to reopen these shops was taken by the finance committee a few days ago and he only acted as per the rules.
Locals and a few shopkeepers in the temporary market have questioned this move by the MCC. These shops include a mobile phone store, a garment store and a bakery among others.
Muneer Katipalla, state president, Democratic Youth Federation of India, alleged that the local leaders from the two mainstream political parties – Congress and the BJP – are hand in glove with these eight shopkeepers. He wondered how only these eight shops were allowed to have an entrance facing the road.
A shopkeeper in the temporary market, who did not wish to be named, feared that all businesses inside the market would henceforth suffer losses as customers would prefer these eight road-facing shops due to easy accessibility.
Defending the eight stores, Santhosh Shetty, the garment store owner, told TOI that owners of these stores had obtained trade licences by depositing winning bids to the tune of Rs 1 lakh – Rs 2.78 lakh, more than a decade ago, while the shops allotted places inside did not make any payment to the civic body. Hence, he said the eight shop owners moved the MCC and demanded what he said was rightfully theirs.