A month after KR Market Association members manhandled some BBMP officials, the two have come to an understanding, with the municipal body collecting Rs14.6 lakh in arrears

Calm after the storm

A month after KR Market Association members manhandled some BBMP officials, the two have come to an understanding, with the municipal body collecting Rs14.6 lakh in arrears

The KR Market Muslim Merchants Association and the BBMP have finally come to a truce after a series of heated argument about payment of dues.

All's well that ends well: As per the commissioner's order, the civic
body officers took the help of City Market Police and the Task Force to
collect the dues. File pic

It may be recalled that on October 28, some association members had manhandled BBMP officials who had come to collect the dues. But the truce seems to have benefited the BBMP's treasury as the shopkeepers have started paying their dues which were pending since a decade.

A month after the incident, officials have collected Rs 14.6 lakh from shopkeepers. The BBMP had been unsuccessful in collecting the dues from the shopkeepers. "Whenever we approached shopkeepers to collect rent, they would abuse and threaten us," claims a BBMP officer.

But when the due amount crossed more than Rs 3.5 crore, BBMP officials took it seriously. On October 28 as per the Commissioner's order the officers took the help of City Market Police and the Task Force to collect the dues. They decided to lock shops of those who had not paid rent since a long time, and those whose balance exceeded Rs 45,000.

u00a0This created a ruckus, because when BBMP officials started locking shops, a few shopkeepers manhandled them. A complaint was later lodged against them for manhandling the officers.

"It has become very difficult for us to sell out goods because thousands of street vendors have illegally occupied the streets in and around the market. It is very difficult for the public to enter the market and we have asked the BBMP to clear them. That has not been done yet," says M Sheriff, a shopkeeper.

BBMP (KR Market) Revenue Officer Amrutraj said, "Shopkeepers have started paying arrears in installments. It had become very difficult for us to collect the rent from them but the incident has given us some positive results."

Ayub Khan, Secretary, K R Market Muslim Merchants Association said, "From next week our association members will personally go to each shop and help collect money and hand it to the BBMP."

1,881 Number of shops in the market