A total of 88 footpath vegetable shops were demolished by the Coimbatore Corporation per High Court mandate.
Coimbatore: A total of 88 footpath vegetable shops were demolished by the Coimbatore Corporation per High Court mandate.
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, temporary vegetable shops were set up at the government bus stands. Now that the lockdown has been relaxed, the bus stands have come back to their intended use.
Hence the shops set up in the bus stands were removed and 50 % of the shops at Thyagi Kumaran market were granted permission to function. The roadside vegetable vendors whose livelihood depended on these shops had earlier lamented that they had lost their livelihood due to this.
However, these 88 pavement shops are being considered as a hindrance to the public and the labourers who deliver goods to the shops in the market.
As a result, as per High court mandate, the Corporation officials, with the protection of the police force, demolished and removed the 88 pavement shops.
Lamenting about this, the shopkeepers said, "the sale from the temporary shops, during the lockdown times were not as per expectation. We have been affected severely. Now that the shops that have been operating for a long time have been demolished, the lives of 88 families have been put in a tight spot.
"The TN government must therefore consider options to help small vendors like us and allocate a place for us to operate. they requested.