The Nilgiris: Tense moments prevailed in the market area in Ooty, as officials from Municipality visited the shops rented out to traders to remeasure them and hike rents accordingly, on Wednesday.
The Nilgiris: Tense moments prevailed in the market area in Ooty, as officials from Municipality visited the shops rented out to traders to remeasure them and hike rents accordingly, on Wednesday.
More than 1500 shops have been rented out by the Ooty municipality, out of which a majority of the shops are present in Ooty's market area.
According to reports, recently, the rents of the shops have been revised by the municipality. Despite using larger floor spaces, many shops pay pittance as rent. As the rent of the shops is decided based on the floor space and location, the officials visited every shop and commenced the process of re-measuring the floor space of the shops to determine the appropriate rent.
Disapproving this action by the officials, the traders got onto a scuffle with the officials and pulled their shutters down. Later, the officials explained the necessity to measure the floor space and assured to do it diligently.
Later, the traders agreed to open their shops and extended cooperation to the officials to carry out the measuring works.
As Ooty's market area is busiest in the town, the scuffle widely garnered the attention of the public.