Chennai: Noting that there is no full-fledged police station in Chennai Koyambedu market area wherein many criminal offences are said to have been committed every day, the Madras high court has suo motu impleaded state home secretary, DGP and the commissioner of police,Chennai, as parties(respondents) in an appeal relating to Koyambedu vegetable market, and posed three queries to them.
A division bench comprising Justices N. Kirubakaran and P.Velmurugan suo motu impleaded the three top officials as party respondents to the appeal filed by Koyambedu Wholesale Market Complex, Periyar Kaikari Angadi Anaithu Sangankalin Kootamaipu, which challenged the allotment of shops through auction/tender for vegetable market phase-I at Koyambedu.
The bench said special government pleader J. Pothiraj takes notice on behalf of the newly impleaded respondents and he undertakes to get the details relating to the three queries.
The three queries are : 1) What is the number of offences committed for the past 10 years in the market area 2) Why no full-fledged police station has been established as per the division bench judgment of this court 3) When the police station will be established.
The bench said it was brought to the notice of this court that shop owners of Koyambedu market area were not properly paying the corporation tax as well as other dues payable to the CMDA, which runs the market complex and therefore, the Chennai corporation commissioner was also suo motu impleaded as a party respondent to the appeal and his counsel C.Gopalakrishnan takes notice and undertakes to get details as to whether all the shop owners have already paid taxes or if there were any dues and if so, what was the amount for the past 10 years.
As per the earlier order passed by this court, the details of allotment of shops as per the policy decision taken by the CMDA and what were the steps taken by the CMDA have to be filed on the next hearing, the bench added and posted to September 20, further hearing of the case.
Appellant’s counsel M.Rajasekhar submitted that the state government had taken a policy decision of shifting the fruits, flowers and vegetable markets from the Kothavalchavadi George Town to the newly identified place in Koyambedu complex on September 23, 1988 with an intention of de-congesting the traffic in the areas surrounding George Town.
Further, it was proposed to shift the wholesale traders from George Town to a new site at Koyambedu by providing all facilities. Pursuant to the policy decision, the government brought two categories of traders namely George Town traders and non-George Town Traders and fixed a sum of Rs 375 per sq.ft for GT traders and Rs 450 per sq.ft for NGT traders as the new scheme for the allotment of shops. Thereafter, the authorities allotted the shop through “drawl of lots”, he added.
He said for the past several years, the shops were allotted through drawl of lots, if there were more than one number of applicants for the same shop. While so, all of a sudden, the authorities published a paper publication on December 21, 2018, and as per which, the allotment of shops would be made through Auction/Tender for vegetable market Phase-I only.
The said auction/tender was against the policy of the government’s mode of allotment.
Therefore on December 27, 2018, the association sent a representation to the authorities bringing to their knowledge about the policy for allotment and also fixing exorbitant rate for the shops. But there was no response. Hence, the appellant filed the present appeal, Rajasekhar added.
