To create walking paths as part of the ‘Vijayawada Square’ coming up at Swaraj Maidan, the decades-old Rythu Bazaar, started by the TDP government, is all set to be moved to a narrow strip of land on the Ryve’s Canal Bund alongside Sambamurthy Road.
District Collector A. Babu, after finalising the much-publicised Vijayawada Square project, has announced that the new Rythu bazaar would be developed at a cost of Rs. 4 crore with 350 modern stalls near the Alankar Centre. “It will be a model bazaar,” he said.
However, the land on which the bazaar is being planned is under litigation and is currently not usable. The land was leased out by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation 10 years ago. Small businesses that mushroomed on the strip were forced to vacate following High Court orders in response to the petition filed by the leaseholder in 2012.
Also, the Tibetan Bazaar, which was established by Tibetan refugees after the VMC offered them the leased land, had to close down its shops. A notice put up on all these establishments, including the park, reads: ‘This project site is covered under High Court Interim orders. Trespassers will be prosecuted’.
When contacted, city planner P. Pradeep Kumar confirmed that the bazaar would be coming up in the place of the restaurant and park on one acre. “The structures will be razed and the land handed over to the Agriculture Marketing Department,” he added.
The land which actually belonged to the Irrigation Department, was transferred to the VMC under Build-Operate-Transfer scheme. The VMC subsequently tied up with the Tourism Department and the Government to develop water sports, amusement rides and other facilities to make it a tourist attraction. It was then leased to a private party who still holds it.
Currently, VMC officials are trying to convince the leaseholder to part with the land for the Rythu bazaar. It is learnt that the leaseholder is keen on giving away the land but is expecting proportionate space in another area.
CPI(M) criticism
CPI(M) Capital Region convener Ch. Babu Rao said that the then TDP government had evicted people living on the canal bund and used it for commercial activity. “Now it is violating several rules for shifting the Rythu Bazaar from Swaraj Maidan. A lot of money was already spent in name of modernising the Bazaar in Swaraj Maidan and the new one needs Rs. 4 crore. The tourism project in V.M. Ranga Park itself is bogus and now the use of the same land for the Rythu Bazaar is ironic.” Also, some space on the canal bund was allotted for Dharna Chowk and for a substation of the Southern Power Distribution Company of A.P. Limited (APSPDCL). “The same Government has evicted poor calling them encroachers,” he said.
