VIJAYAWADA: CPI has demanded that the irrigation department withdraw notices issued to shop-keepers on Ryves Canal bund at Lenin Centre.
In a statement here Thursday, CPI city secretary Donepudi Sankar said that in the name of beautification of canals, it was not fair for the irrigation department to ask the shopkeepers to relocate themselves.
He said that 20 years ago, the then municipal commissioner M G V K Banu had given permission to small-time traders to set up shops on the Ryves canal bund to do business. Now the irrigation department was asking them to move out of the place, he said.
The CPI leader demanded that the TDP should support the cause of the shopkeepers as it came to power with the support of such small traders. The silence of the TDP leaders was baffling, he added.
He warned the government that his party would take to streets if the notices were not withdrawn with immediate effect.