Traders evicted for SCB project yet to be rehabilitated in Odisha
CUTTACK: Vendors evicted from Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC)’s market complex, which was demolished to widen Taladanda Canal Road for facilitating communication to the proposed expanded campus of SCB Medical College and Hospital, are still waiting to get new shops as promised to them by the authorities. As per reports, CMC had constructed the market complex in 1977 and it was rented out to 30 shopkeepers.
In order to facilitate expansion of Taladanda Canal Road, while the shopkeepers were evicted, the market complex was demolished on November 29, 2021. At the time of eviction, the administration which had provided financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh to each evicted vendor had assured them that a new model market complex will be constructed at Ranihat to rehabilitate them within six months.
However, though more than one-and-a-half year has already passed, the administration is yet to construct the market complex even as land for the project has already been identified at the site where the office of Leather Corporation was located.
“Though we have been running from pillar to post and approaching collector, mayor and CMC commissioner, no steps have been taken to rehabilitate us,” said an evicted shopkeeper on condition of anonymity. The shopkeepers had also brought matter to the notice of chief secretary and 5 T secretary who had visited the place to review the progress of work.
Meanwhile, chairman, CDA and SCB Redevelopment Project Implementation Committee (PIC), Anil Samal said the model market complex would be constructed soon.”Odisha Bridge & Construction Corporation Limited (OB&CC) was directed to prepare a plan for construction of the model market complex. However, the agency had prepared a plan for construction of a simple market complex to accommodate maximum 80 shops. The OB&CC has been instructed to come up with plan for construction of a model market complex with several amenities to accommodate around 200 shops,” he said.