Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 3: Four months after street vendors were allotted State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) yard in Lal Chowk here for establishing flea market, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) last evening took away the belongings of these vendors in presence of security forces.
The vendors said that last evening at around 7:00 pm, the tippers of SMC arrived at SRTC yard, which was now renamed as Makkah market, and started vandalizing iron roof made up of iron rods and steel sheets. “They also took away our goods and removed the board,” he said.
Though officials gave no reason for the action and closing the market, the vendors said that they were summoned by police few days ago and asked to resume business during separatist shutdown. “However, we categorically refused as there are calls for shutdown,” they said. The vendors alleged that Friday’s action was “an act of revenge” by authorities.
When contacted, the SMC Commissioner, Bashir Ahmad, said that they acted on the orders of Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan. “I don’t know the reason behind closing down the market. We were told to close it by Divisional Commissioner and we did accordingly. We have kept their (vendors) goods at safe place,” he said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel