Agra traders may lose allotment
Agra Development Authority plans to take penal action against 80% of absentee traders
| Notably, the Agra Cloth Mercantile Association (ACMA) and the footwear trader organisations had agreed to shift the entire bulk cloth and footwear markets from inside the old city to the Sanjay Place commercial area in January this year after the Agra Development Authority had assured the market would be furnished with all infrastructural facilities before the end of 2005. |
| But the over 600 shops multi-crore market developed by the ADA is still lying unoccupied, even four months after it was supposed to have been formally occupied by the cloth and footwear merchants and while the traders are still blaming the ADA for not providing adequate infrastructure in the market, the authorities is not in a mood to allow any more delay in getting this market functional and has issued a final notice of dispossession to about 550 traders, giving them a chance to occupy the shops by May 15, after which, they shall be evicted from the shops. |
| Going a step further, the ADA has asked the Agra district administration to prohibit the loading and unloading of goods carrying vehicles in Hing Ki Mandi and Hospital Road markets, where the footwear and garment businesses are currently based, to force the businessmen into honoring their commitment and occupy the market that has been lying vacant, awaiting to be occupied since it was constructed in 2000. |
| Talking to Business Standard, Shashikant Sharma, vice-chairman, Agra Development Authority, said that the traders' claim of lack of infrastructural support in the market was not correct and the ADA had even constructed the state's largest underground parking facility in the market to facilitate the traders and if they were still not ready to move in, they should be ready to face administrative action against them. |