Unit II traders’ strike called off

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, Sept-2:

The indefinite strike called by the permanent traders doing business at the Unit II Market Building here demanding eviction of illegal vendors was called off today.

According to the secretary of the Central Market Association (CMA) Pradyumna Kumar Jena,the strike was called off after a discussion with Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena at the office of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC).

A six-member team has been formed to decide on the eviction of the illegal vendors. The team includes CMA leaders, the Deputy Commissioner and Recovery Officer of BMC, ACP Dillip Das and Traffic ACP Binod Das.

At the meeting, it was decided that 146 vendors, who have gone to the court against the eviction drive, could do their businesses in the Market Building until the verdict is out, said Jena.

Earlier in the day, 115 traders took out a procession from the Market Building to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) here and staged a demonstration in front of the municipal building.

The CMA members also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister highlighting their problems as well as the apathetic attitude of the BMC and the other concerned authorities.

“On August 25, we served a seven-day ultimatum to the BMC urging it to evict the illegal vendors whose whereabouts are neither known to the BMC nor to us. Customers are finding it difficult to move inside the market due to the heavy presence of the encroachers on the footpaths and rest-sheds of the market building.Senior citizens, women and physically-challenged persons, in particular, are facing great difficulties,” added Jena.

“If the BMC fails to fulfil our demands, we will go on strike and close the market again,” Jena warned.