East Masi Street, one of the prime zones chosen for Smart City Mission, is an area where over 300 merchants conduct trade. It is full of wholesale and retail grocery stores, frequented by a large number of people from across the district. Situated in the east side of Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, this street runs from Yanaikkal in the north to Vilakkuthoon in the south.
Over the past nine months, the Corporation has been regularly conducting encroachment eviction drive in a bid to lay pedestrian pavements. It plans to clear space and create a heritage bazaar with products indigenous to Madurai. Under the Smart City scheme of things, the nearby fruit market is to be shifted to Mattuthavani.
The shopkeepers on East Masi Street have been staging protests against the corporation for removing ‘encroachments.’ “The City Corporation should stop demolishing the pavements in front of age-old shops on East Masi Street in the name of encroachment eviction. These pathways do not pose inconvenience to shoppers,” said S.P. Jeyapragasam, president of Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants Association, here on Saturday. These people have been doing business for more than 50 years and they have not grabbed carriage space or pavement space on purpose. The steps of shops should not be demolished as people stand on them while shopping and the workers need them to stand on while loading goods,” Mr. Jeyapragasam said.
According to a shopkeeper, V. Thalavaisamy, “The Corporation has not laid the pavements in a uniform manner. It tapers and broadens randomly and the designated space causes confusion. Moreover the street is not broad enough. The corporation must re-lay the pathway, erect railings and provide individual openings for shops.”
Another shopkeeper, S. Kumar, said that Corporation officials did not show identity cards during eviction. They used unparliamentary language and just shoved the goods into a van and whisked off.
Corporation Commissioner S. Aneesh Sekhar, however, said that any disturbance to pedestrian movement would be considered encroachment and removed. Speaking to The Hindu , he said East Masi Street would get a facelift under ‘Smart Roads,’ a Smart City initiative. Development would be manifold in the Area Based Development (ABD) zone). The Corporation officials and shopkeepers must work in tandem for an inclusive growth, he said.
