Bhatkal: The municipality auction stir continued even after the cessation of the auction on Monday. It was reported that a shopkeeper had a mild heart attack and was hospitalised on Tuesday.
Depressed over losing his shop due to a higher bid, a shopkeeper suffered mild heart attack and was hospitalized on Tuesday. The agitated municipality shop owners, who were looking for an opportunity to protest against the bid, brought down their shutters and gathered at the hospital. It is to be noted that the local leaders of the BJP were in full support of the shopkeepers.
It is learnt that the victim Ramnath Balegar was running his shop for the last 29 years for Rs. 1900 per month. On Monday during the auction, he had stopped his bid when it reached 16,000 Rs and hence his shop was given to someone else. Heartbroken over this, he suffered a mild heart attack.
This incident added fuel to the fire and BJP leaders Govind Naik and others accompanied the shop tenants at the hospital and demanded that the shops should be given to the previous tenants. Speaking on the occasion, Govind Naik said: "Bhatkal Assistant Commissioner has mentioned that the High Court decision is the reason behind this auction. Furthermore, the High court has ordered the demolition of a building coming under the Municipality limits which has been ignored in this particular case. It shows the biased attitude of the officers," he added.
The tenants marched from Asarkeri to the Venkatraman Temple Hall and held at a meeting under the banner of Shopkeepers Rakshana Vedike. Addressing the agitators, president of Vedike, Mohan Naik, president of Rickshaw Union Venkatesh Naik and BJP leader Krishna Naik Asarkeri addressed and motivated the agitators to not lose hope and called upon the agitators to stay united and encounter every challenges together. Municipality has committed several mistakes in the past, we can get justice from the court on the basis of the past mistakes, they added.
The protesters reached police station and submitted the memorandum to PSI Revathi and then handed another memorandum to Municipal Chief Officer Ramesh at Bhatkal Municipality.
The memo states that some old tenants have lost their shops because of some 'hidden agendas'. They also appealed that the government should determine the rent of the shops and rent it to all the old tenants.
Speaking about the TMC shop stir, chief officer Ramesh said: "In 2009, as per the government order, it was stated that the old tenants should be given a chance under Section (3), hence the measurements of the shops and the details were sent to the Deputy Commissioner but the file remained pending at the DC office. In 2015, the High Court had ordered the auction of all the TMC owned shops, although the file was brought to the attention of the officials in the deputy commissioner's office but it had been of no use,"he added.