Marine Drive: GCDA evicts petty shop owners

KOCHI: Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) has evicted petty shops near the Marine Drive walkway. The GCDA authorities said that the land would be utilised only for the purpose of parking. While the petty shop owners allege that they were evicted illegally, the GCDA authorities say that shops were evicted as the land was being misused. “A contractor can collect fees for parking only. He cannot allot the space for those who run business by parking four-wheeler trolleys,” GCDA chairman N Venugopal said. He also said that selling tea, snacks and other edible stuff has caused pollution in the area. “Waste such as water bottles, paper cups and rotten fruits from these shops was piling up there and I have been getting numerous e-mails seeking action against this,” he added.However, the shop owners say that they were allotted space for parking trolleys after they paid an amount by way of rent advance to the contractor. “The contractor who won the bid to collect parking fee was collecting `30 per day from us as rent,” said Kuttan, a vendor who was running a shop there.According to him, the attempt by certain vendors to occupy space more than allotted to them resulted in the eviction of all. “Recently, some vendors brought additional vehicles, but they were not ready to pay the rent for the additional space which they occupied. This resulted in a total eviction,” Kuttan said. The evicted vendors also said that the affected will be the ones who run only one shop for livelihood. “There are people who own more than one shop. They will not suffer even if they are displaced from here as they have other means of income,” Kuttan added.Meanwhile, the GCDA chairman said that people had set up shops on GCDA’s land at many places. “Running petty shops has become a major business. It has come to our notice that there are people who own more than 20 petty shops and wayside eateries at different locations. Action will be taken against them soon,” Venugopal said.He also said that GCDA has identified 40 cents of land near Marine Drive for setting up open-air restaurants. “This area will be developed along with work of extension of Marine Drive,” Venugopal said.