After the protest by the shopkeepers, authorities on Thursday allowed to reopen more than 20 shops at Aftab Market in Srinagar, which were sealed yesterday by officials claiming that they had encroached on state land.
The shopkeepers held a protest after the incident. “We have been paying rent to the Srinagar Municipal Corporation. Our livelihood is dependent on these shops,” Mudasir Nazir, Secretary Aftab Market Association, told The Kashmir Walla.
On Thursday morning, a team of representatives from the market associations met the officials and brokered peace after which the authorities removed the seal from the shops.
On Wednesday, the authorities sealed more than 20 shops at the market, saying that the land was illegally occupied, as part of the anti-encroachment drive in J-K.
“Authorities had received a complaint regarding illegal occupation of land at Aftab Market where more than 20 shops were raised and eviction notices to illegal occupants were also served but they failed to vacate after which we started the sealing the shop,” the official had said.
Earlier, J-K’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said that common masses and poor people will not be touched during the ongoing eviction drive launched to retrieve state land from encroachers.
