CHANDIGARH: A delegation from the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal (CBM) submitted a memorandum to mayor Sarbjit Kaur and municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra on Tuesday about their struggles due to competition from the malls and asked for beautification and upgradation of the markets.
CBM president Charanjjiv Singh took up the issue of beautification and upgrade of markets and permitting signboards for the upper floors of those showrooms. He said: “To compete with the shopping malls, the traditional sector markets of the city need to be further beautified and fitted with LED lights, benches, public Wi-Fi and CCTV cameras.”
He also pleaded for a waiver of Rs 10 daily penalty on the late transfer of property in the MC records. On the expansion of parking facility in the markets, he said: “This was required and can be provided by building community parking lots behind the markets or developing multi-storey or underground lots in busy markets.”
Sanjeev Chadha, general secretary, CBM, demanded the removal of vendors from markets and shifting them to the vendor zones, and allowing a reasonable space for keeping products within the pillars by shopkeepers. Diwakar Sahoonja, patron of the CBM, said that the parking problem of Sector 17 had been solved with the construction of a big enough multi-level lot but the other markets of the city remained congested because of the people who parked their vehicles on the main roads.
He said: “So extension of parking facility is required either by way of community parking at the back side of markets or 3-4 multi-level parking lots in the busy markets or underground parking beneath existing parking area and adjoining roads.”
He also submitted that since garbage from the commercial establishments, especially the general trade, was mostly dust form normal brooming of the floors and dusting, there should be reasonable garbage collection charges imposed by the Chandigarh municipal corporation.
