Ire over shifting of 100-year-old market

Tiruchy: The wholesale and retail traders of ‘Gandhi Market’ here will down their shutters for 24 hours from 2200 hrs tonight protesting against the authorities move to shift the historic market to suburb Kallikkudi.

Announcing this at a press conference, Tamil Nadu Traders Federation’s State Treasurer V. Govindaraju  said the traders of ‘Gandhi Market’ will also observe a day's fast in their premises on Tuesday, protesting against the proposed opening of the Kallikudi market complex by Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami through video conferencing on Tuesday. The traders would also hoist black flags atop their shops in the market complex as mark of protest.

Mr. Govindaraju said the new market complex at Kallikudi had several disadvantages like smaller floor area, situated far away from the centre of Tiruchy town and could accommodate less number of shops. However, the century-old ‘Gandhi Market’ complex is having more than 3.000 shops, and it catered to the livelihood of more than 25,000 persons including farmers, load men, shop employees etc., he said, adding, it ‘Gandhi Market’ was shifted to Kallikudi all of them would be severely affected. He appealed to the Chief MInister to give up the government's move to shift the ‘Gandhi Market’ to Kallikudi.