AGARTALA, July 9 (TIWN): Land conservaton Committee has staged mass protests in the capital of Tripura on Thursday against the order given by the AMC to vacant 9-foot of land from the roadside by Friday for the construction of Fly-over which turned in to a major controversy.

The committee along with the locals held protests in the capital on Thursday denouncing the order of Agartala Municipal Corporation at Nagerjala near the traffic post. The protest had started from morning and continued till evening, confirmed Former Councilor Babul Datta.

The locals accused the AMC for not following High Court’s order, where it had been mentioned that no street vendors or hawkers can be evicted without bringing them under the coverage of survey which was supposed to be carried on by the state government after every five years as per the act.

They also complained that every after few days the State Government asks the shopkeepers and the hawkers to vacant the occupied area so that the government can utilize the area to extend the road and now for the construction of the fly-over. They claimed that it is hectic for every locals and hawkers to vacant area every after few days and also do not get single penny in exchange of land.

The AMC had instructed the locals to vacant the area by themselves or else the AMC task force will forcefully shatter the house and shops, said the locals.

They even informed about the situation to Revenue Minister Badal Choudhury about their demand of money in exchange of land.

It is worthy to mention that the locals and the hawkers do not have any problem to vacant the occupied area for the development of the state. Resentment brewed after the Government did not pay a single penny in exchange of the vacant area to the hawkers or the concern owner earlier, said Babul Datta.

He also mentioned that the shop is the only livelihood for the poor hawkers and the shopkeepers, when they vacant the area it brings a huge loss to their stomach. And when they do not receive a single penny from the Government it hampers their livelihood.

Now when the AMC had instructed the locals and the hawkers to vacant their area by Friday, they came up with the demonstration with a demand to pay money in exchange of the vacant area, said Datta.

‘The Government is busy enough to develop the state but they are least bothered about the public demands’, said a local.

Besides they said that it is their livelihood issue and the authorities have not approached the issue from a livelihood angle.

The hawkers also complained that many of them had been earning insufficient amount of money by selling small articles on some of the busy roads and the illegal action taken by the corporation brought  huge loss to the only small earnings.