Owners of shops that were shifted to temporary sheds during the construction of the underpass at Palayam in 2004 are still waiting to be rehabilitated to the shops allocated to them inside the Saphalyam complex. Their efforts to get their shops shifted to the complex owned by the Thiruvananthapuram Development Authority (TRIDA) are yet to succeed.
Early this year, the shopkeepers wrote to the Minister for Local Self Governments A.C. Moideen about their plight.
He forwarded it to TRIDA, which promised to expedite the process.
The reason being pointed out by TRIDA for not handing over the shops is that they have not yet got TC numbers from the city Corporation. Completion certificates and TC numbers have not yet been provided because fire safety measures have not been completed in these buildings.
In a recent communication to a shop owner, TRIDA said that it is taking steps to obtain the TC numbers, after which the shops will be handed over.
‘No TC, no facilities’
“I have been running my shop from a tin-roofed temporary shed for 15 years. I was allotted a shop in the C block of the complex around 12 years ago. Two years ago, I had paid ₹98,000 to TRIDA as deposit when they said that the TC numbers will soon be allocated. But, nothing happened. At one point, when I kept up the pressure, they asked me to start functioning from the new shop. But, without the TC number, we would not get power, water or drainage connection. When we told TRIDA about this, they asked us to wait,” said a shopkeeper.
