Sit-in protest by traders of Gandhi Market

They are not ready to be shifted to temporary shops at an ‘inaccessible’ area

TIRUNELVELI Traders of Mahatma Gandhi Market in Palayamkottai staged a sit-in dharna on Monday as they were asked to have their temporary shops at an “inaccessible area” to facilitate reconstruction of the market in contrary to the earlier decision of having the temporary shops on adjacent Jawahar Grounds and Police Quarters area. As the Corporation has planned to reconstruct the 60-year-old dilapidated Mahatma Gandhi Market under the Smart City project on an outlay of ₹ 14.90 crore, owners of the shops in the market covering on 1.22 acres were asked to move to the temporary shops to be created nearby. Once reconstruction is completed with basement and ground floor, the market will fetch a net revenue of ₹ 2.08 crore a year after gross expenditure of ₹ 48.23 lakh towards housekeeping.