Jamshedpur: Despite efforts to make Sakchi market encroachment free by the district administration, the vendors are not willing to move. The administration has allocated Sakchi Aambagan to make shift shopkeepers of Sakchi to operate but still shopkeepers are operating from Sakchi market. In view of traffic snarls at Sakchi, the shopkeepers were asked to shift to local Aambagan. Though several shopkeepers have shifted but several others continue to operate from footpaths.
About one lakh people use to visit Sakchi market every day. Most of the people tend to come to the market by riding two-wheelers or two-wheelers. But due to lack of adequate parking space outside the marketplace, many of them have to come to the market by riding their vehicles.
Incidentally, Sakchi market was cleared of encroachment after several days of efforts on the part of district administration last year. Traffic police said that pavements in Sakchi were freed of vendors during an exercise. With city roads squeezing day by day due to encroachments, the district administration launched an anti-encroachment drive. “We want to streamline the traffic movement in the city. We are taking initiatives to vacate the illegal constructions so that the vehicles can move easily,” said an officer of Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee.
In view of regular complaints of shopkeepers against footpath vendors and also because of the spread of coronavirus, the police had removed over 60 makeshift shops from Sakchi market. After the market place was cleaned the aggrieved footpath vendors came to the Sakchi police station and met demanded an alternative place for running their business. At the same time they complained that the shopkeepers, who have been allotted shops from Tata Steel have encroached upon a considerable area by extending their shops beyond the permissible limit , thus making the passage of the market narrow.
” We are aware of the problems faced by the footpath vendors, who eke out a living by selling their wares. But, we cannot compromise with the safety of the market place. Moreover , people also find it inconvenient to move into the market freely with the passages getting choked due to the make-shift shops,” said an official.
He would ensure that the market place is cleared of any type of encroachments including the manner in which the shopkeepers had extended their shops. ” We are also trying to find out a solution to accommodate the footpath vendors by identifying a separate place for them, from where they can conduct business, ” he said.