Officials of Namma Metro were caught off guard earlier this week when a person enquired about purchasing a portion of S.V. Road Metro Station. The person claimed to have seen ad on a free online classifieds portal about the sale.
When officials found out who had posted the advertisement, they were in for a shock.
It was a woman who had rented a stall at Bangalore Haat adjoining S.V. Road station to sell food products. As the products were well received, the rental agreement was extended.
Soon after that, she is believed to have put up the ad saying an ‘open air restaurant’ at the Metro station is ‘up for sale’.
K. Prabhakar Rao, Chief Administrative Officer, Bangalore Metro Rural Haat, said, “We have 72 stalls that have been rented out for very nominal sums. The rental period is a minimum of 10 days and maximum of two months. We try to ensure that the people who seek ask for these stalls are rural artisans or self-help groups. But sometimes, we rent out the space to women looking for a platform to display and sell their wares. This woman has an eight-month-old baby and her stall was doing well, which is why we decided to renew the rental agreement to help her. The next thing we know is that she had advertised that space for sale.”
The woman was not handed over to the police out of sympathy for her child, but was told to vacate the stall immediately.
