GHMC’s unannounced demolition drive undertaken on Wednesday has left vendors and owners of small outlets in the Abhyudayanagar area of LB Nagar Zone flummoxed and fuming.
About five shops and structures, including a tiffin centre, an iron shop and a curry point were demolished either fully or partially, during the morning hours of Wednesday by GHMC officials who came with an excavator machine. All the affected were small-time vendors, who eked out livelihood from the roadside businesses.
“We were not given any notices before the demolition was taken up. When we demanded to see the orders, the official accompanying the JCB vehicle informed us that he had received a complaint against us,” recalled Pavan Kumar, owner of a curry point, the steps before whose shop got demolished.
While the structure was owned by someone else, Pavan had to bear the brunt because he rented it for his shop.
“I paid ₹ 50,000 advance, and footed the establishment expenses too when I set up the shop four years ago. We are yet to recover from the losses during COVID-19 lockdown, and now, this,” he lamented.
Shops and steps jutting on to the road was the violation mentioned in justification of the demolition. However, Yadagiri, another vendor lost his small iron shop which was at least five feet away from the road.
“It cost me ₹35,000 to set up the shop. I even had the id card given by GHMC to street vendors. If they are to bulldoze us like this, why issue id cards?” he questioned.
While GHMC has constituted zonal level task forces to deal with all the illegal structures, the teams are not seen taking action against flagrant violations such as additional floors, lack of Fire NOC, compromised setback spaces, and unauthorised structures such as penthouses and sheds atop the buildings.
The vendors alleged that several shops further ahead on the Abhyudaya Nagar-FCI Colony road remained untouched despite violations. GHMC Town Planning officials, when enquired, cited several complaints from colony residents about illegal parking leading to constriction of road space. The tiffin centre was being allowed to run in the setback space of another building, they said. All the shops were permitted after collecting rent from the vendors, they said.
