Amritsar, December 28
The police resorted to lathi-charge and used teargas to disperse agitating vegetable merchants protesting against the demolition of a structure at the Old Sabzi Mandi here today. The structure was demolished by the municipal corporation with the help of district administration. Several persons were injured in the incident, including some MC employees.
The district authorities also thwarted attempts of the fruit and vegetable merchants to hold Akhand Path at the “disputed site”.
They were carrying the copy of a Punjab and Haryana High court order that allowed them to operate from the Old Mandi till redesigning of the shops at a new place near Valla here.
However, the district authorities insisted that the court orders could be implemented only if these came through the Mandi Board.
The police had cordoned off the area by putting barricades at all entry and exit points. The merchants were chased and beaten up by the police. However, when it failed to bear results, the police fired several rounds of teargas shells in the air. Some traders and government employees sustained injuries in the lathi-charge.
The court order stated that till alternative plots were allotted to the
members of the union, it would be unjustified to compel members of the union, whose plots fell within 1,000-m radius from the ammunition depot, to shift from the Old Mandi to the new one at Valla.The district officials who waited with bated breath in the morning, communicating in signals and whispers on mobile phones with their seniors about the latest situation, got suddenly active when they saw Guru Granth Sahib being taken there by the merchants.
More than 200 employees of the MC and the district administration descended on the site with a view to get the structures demolished.
The issue took centrestage again with fruit and vegetable merchants’ union demanding alternative plots for those who had been shifted to Valla following an order of the high court. The court had held that the area allotted to many of those shifted from the Old Mandi was under the defence prohibitory area.
Though the Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Union alleged that several traders suffered injuries in the scuffle, Mr K.S. Kang, MC Commissioner, said at least eight of his employees were injured.
Earlier, Mr Harbans Singh Kamboj and Mr Harish Taneja, union office-bearers, said in 2003, 32 allottees were allowed to construct shops at the Valla Mandi that fell in the “prohibited area”.
The court had said in its fresh directions that the market place be opened for redesign through the Punjab Mandi Board “so as to relocate such members whose plots fell within the 1,000- m radius to another location beyond the prohibited area”. The court added that the affected could operate from the Old Mandi till relocated, they said.
The board had also been directed to carry out demarcation of 1,000-m radius in two weeks, they said.
Mr Valtoha in a statement today said that he would file a defamation case against the two SGPC members and would also demand that they may be summoned at Akal Takht to explain their allegation.
