CHENNAI: A special bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday expressed doubt whether a mafia collecting ‘mamool’ is behind the petitions filed against reducing the number of shops on Marina Beach in Chennai to 300 from the existing 1,417.
“We suspect, don’t ask for evidence, that rowdy elements and mafia gang collecting mamool from the traders may be behind these (impleading) litigations,” the bench comprising justices R Suresh Kumar and AD Jagadish Chandira said while hearing the petitions relating to regulation of shops on the Marina and the impleading petitions filed by the left over vendors.
However, the bench assuaged the tempers of the left over hawkers, who have been facing eviction as the 300 shops were allotted through the lot system recently, stating the court will ensure the 1,117 vendors are accommodated in the vending zones available closer to the beach.
“We will ensure you are accommodated at some other places - vending zones closer to Marina Beach,” said the bench.
However, the bench made it clear that the hawkers cannot claim space as a matter of right, as they have been allotted only temporary shops for doing business on the beach.
The court had recently ordered reducing the number of shops on the beach from 1,417 to 300, and restricted the goods to be sold to only three items - toys, fancy items and edibles.
Senior counsel T Mohan and advocate D Nagasaila, representing several shop owners who have filed petitions to implead in the case, pressed for accommodating the hawkers at the existing sites but the bench did not agree to it.
Stating that allotment of shops were controlled by vested interests consisting of representatives of political parties and rowdies until the court intervened, the bench noted none of the 300 hawkers, whom the shops were recently allotted, has paid ‘a single penny’.
It said a balance will be struck between the livelihood of the vendors, who are left out, and the preservation of the serenity and beauty of the world’s second longest beach.
The bench said it will pass detailed orders on the petitions seeking to implead in the case.