Cannaught Market traders claim Pay and Park as burdensome

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The traders and the customers at Connaught Place Market in Cidco complained of feeling burdened due to the ‘Pay and Park’ facilities introduced by the municipal corporation in the vicinity.

Acting upon the High Court orders, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) officials removed the encroachments from different neighbourhoods of Cidco and Hudco including Connaught Place where there are around 500 shops.

There is a huge crowd during the peak hours in the morning and the evenings in the market. The civic authorities removed the tin sheds extended by the shopkeepers as a part of the drive to remove encroachments. In addition, the civic personnel are not tolerating any kind of encroachment to emerge in front of the shops. The anti-encroachment drive van moves in the vicinity daily and it blew a siren and rushes to remove encroachment if exists.

To streamline vehicle parking, the municipal corporation introduced Pay and Park facilities one week ago. The contract has been given to a private agency. The charges are Rs 10 per two-wheeler and Rs 30 for each four-wheeler. Since then the argument between the contractor, shopkeepers and customers has become frequent. If anybody stands with a vehicle on the road also then the contractor's staff fears him by taking the photograph.

According to the president of Connaught Market, Dnyaneshwar Appa Kharde, “ Majority of them have got debt-ridden due to the pandemic situation and the business are resuming to its normalcy for the past few months only. The municipal corporation removed our sheds. The anti-encroachment van is also operated in the market daily. Now, the burden of Pay and Park is introduced. There is a disruption in the power supply for 3-4 times daily. Hence tell us how to do business. If this continues, aggression will be developed amongst the business fraternity.”