Chandigarh, December 24: The protest by traders against the relocation of vendors continued today with shopkeepers of the Sector 19 market closing their shops for half day against the decision of the Municipal Corporation to provide space to vendors in markets of the city.
A large number of shopkeepers of the market held a protest and raised slogans against the MC. Later, they also met the MC Commissioner to submit the keys of their shops symbolically.
Arvinder Singh Bedi, president of the Market Welfare Association, Sector 19-C, said the MC was allowing vendors at the entrance of their shops, which was not justified. The market was already facing parking problems, and vendors would add to the chaos.
Vinay Jain, a trader, said allotting space in front of shops to vendors would create law and order problems. Vinod Talwar, JPS Kalra, Subhash Kataria, Jagdish Arora, and Pradeep Chhabra, president of the city Congress, were present on the occasion. Vinod Talwar, a trader, said there were many jewellery shops in the market and the owners feared that the presence of vendors would create problems for them.
The traders said they would not allow vendors in the market and they would continue with their protest till their demands were met.
Sector 21 residentshold protest
Residents of Sector 21, under the banner of the Citizens Association, held a protest against the Municipal Corporation for allotting a public passage close to houses to street vendors.
They said the allotment of the passage to vendors would lead to congestion in the nearby area from house number 2010 to 2020.
Navdeep Kohli, general secretary of the association, said the vendors would disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the area. In the past also, the residents had suffered as this space was encroached upon by scooter/car mechanics.
They were removed on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the UT Administration had allotted them booths to rehabilitate them.
