Shop owners protest to halt eviction at Fulbaria Super Market
Shop owners have taken to the streets to halt the eviction drive at Gulistan's Fulbaria Super Market-2. The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) could yet start the scheduled eviction drive due to the procession until 12:15pm.
According to DSCC, there are 911 shops in this shopping mall outside of the official design. Some of these shops were set up in the place of toilets, elevators and walkways. The eviction drive was scheduled to begin at 11:00am on Tuesday. Three executive magistrates also came to the spot at the scheduled time. But before that, the owners and employees of the shop took position on the road in front of the mall.
The shopping mall is located opposite the DSCC head office. It comprises three buildings, divided into blocks A, B and C. However, the shop owners have renamed Block A as City Plaza,Block B as Nagar Plaza and Block C as Zack's Super Market.
The protesting shop owners said they have paid thousands of taka in bribes to different people during the tenure of former mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka for legalising the shops.
They also said that they have been paying rent to the DSCC, yet the authorities came to evict the shops without any prior notification.
However, chief property officer of DSCC said, the owners were sent notifications before the drive.
According to DSCC, the new mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, after taking charge, formed a committee to look into the unplanned shops and the overall situation. The five-member committee, headed by the corporation's chief engineer, identified 911 unplanned shops in the market and recommended their eviction. With the committee's recommendation, the mayor agreed to evict the unplanned shops. After that, the DSCC decided to evict all the unplanned shops from 11:00 am Tuesday.
Meanwhile, although the eviction operation of the shop has not started, the officials of the city corporation and the members of the law enforcement forces have taken position in front of the shops. Executive magistrate in charge of eviction, Moniruzzaman told Prothom Alo that they are trying to bring in more policemen.