Kovilpatti, Madurai traders protest officials’ decision on rent and eviction

Recently, the special officer of Kovilpatti Municipality issued notices to 395 shops in Muthuramalinga Thevar Daily Market about the increase in rent for the shops. The traders alleged that if the new rent comes into force there would be a hike of 200 percentage to 1,200 percentage in rent which is never acceptable to them. Hence, they had closed the shops and had showed their condemnation to the Municipality. 

The traders also observed a fast. But officials in Kovilpatti Municipality said that the rent was not hiked in the last 15 years and the shops were paying a very meagre rent. If the new rent rules were implemented Kovilpatti Municipality would get Rs 6 crores every year. But traders had rejected the claims of the Municipality and said that the rent should have been hiked once in three years and the hike percentage should be not more than 15. 

“It is the failure of the Municipal officials. They did not increase the rent gradually. What we will do if they increase it at one stroke. Such steep hike will prove disastrous to our trading activities,” said a trader in the market. 

Moreover, a case is also pending at the High Court regarding the increase in the rent of the shops in the same market. The traders claimed that it was illegal on the part of the special officer to increase the rent.

Meanwhile, street vendors who had their shops in Anna Nagar in Madurai staged a protest. Madurai Corporation had recently given them a notice to evict the place and move to Mattuthavani fruit market. But the vendors claimed that not all vendors were given space in the fruit market and only few were given shops that too for namesake. So they had decided not to move to the fruit market and staged a protest against the eviction notice.