BBMP clears physically challenged off footpaths

BBMP clears physically challenged off footpaths


Express News Service First Published : 09 Jul 2010 08:35:37 AM ISTLast Updated : 09 Jul 2010 09:32:35 AM IST
BANGALORE: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike seems to have woken up from its slumber and realised that footpaths are meant for pedestrian movement and not for petty shops.
A day after BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah said that pavements would be cleared to facilitate smoother pedestrian movement, the BBMP has removed illegal shops on Shivajinagar that had been in the same place for the last 20 years.
The Palike that had turned a blind eye to the issue for all these years has started removing the shops following the directive. Shop owners in the area said that they were given permission to set up shop by the government.
They said that though the place was not allotted by the government to them, it had permitted them to operate the shops as they were physically challenged.
Syed Ziahullah, a physically challenged shop keeper, told Express that now he had no place to go to or find shelter. He said that the government had given him the shop but had not provided the space for setting it up.
“I have been here for only a year but the BBMP has destroyed the shops without any notice or warning,” he said.
Another shop owner Saimullah Khan, who has a broken hip, said that he couldn’t manage to walk and wasn’t sure if the BBMP would give them an alternative. The shops had been there for many years and the Palike has finally taken some action to set order here.
Many shops were brought down by their owners themselves, as the BBMP had threatened that it would confiscate the belongings if it was forced to demolish the shops.