Shopkeepers in the Phase-1 Khokha market are wandering around looking for employment. Recently, all the shops here were demolished by GMADA. After which all the shopkeepers here have become unemployed. On Monday, the shopkeepers met BJP state executive member Sanjeev Vashisht and appealed to him to convey his views to the government.
Shopkeepers told Sanjeev Vashisht that GMADA had shut down all their businesses, leaving them completely unemployed and in a situation where they were forced to starve along with their families. In this regard Vashisht said that Punjab government should formulate a policy for this market like any other market in the city and shops should be allotted to these shopkeepers in accordance with that policy.
So that these shopkeepers can support their family by running their own business.
The government acted against the thinking of Shaheed Bhagat Singh
Sanjeev Vashisht said that the Khokha Market which was demolished in Phase-I was named after Shaheed Bhagat Singh Khokha Market. But by demolishing this market, the government has done a disservice to the thinking of Shaheed Bhagat Singh. He said that Aam Aadmi Party had promised to provide employment to the people before coming to power.
But now that he is in power, the government has started losing jobs. By demolishing people's shops, the government has not only made shopkeepers unemployed but also left their families starving to death.Shopkeepers said they had been working here for generations
The shopkeepers of Phase-1 market said that they have been working in Phase-1 market for generations. There are some shopkeepers whose fathers and grandfathers built shops there and those people are now carrying on the work. But now the government has stopped all their activities. So now they have nothing left to do.
Not only that, the shopkeepers who make goods for their shops also had to sell the shells at shell prices after the shops collapsed. Because they had no other place to keep those things.
The scavengers had to sell
Vashisht said that these shopkeepers had put up their shops with so many years of hard work and had collected their goods, all the goods had to be sold by the shopkeepers to the scavengers. As a result shopkeepers have lost millions of rupees.
He said that if the government had to take action on this market then the policy should have been formulated to accommodate these shopkeepers elsewhere and only after that action would be taken here.