Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Feb 03 : The shopkeepers in Nagbal area of South Kashmir’s Shopian district on Friday observed a shutdown after they were asked to vacate their shops allegedly built on state land.
The shopkeepers while talking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said that there are around 400 shops in Nagbal market and as per almost all are on government land and they have been asked to vacate these shops within days.
They said vacating shops will lead to worklessness and a meager proportion of the population earning their livelihood will also become unemployed where the majority of educated youth are already unemployed.
Shopian has already faced problem as they suffered huge losses due to low demand of apple and if now shops, the only source of income, will be snatched, then there will be no option other than suicide before us, said one shopkeeper.
He said that Kashmir is already challenged by unemployment and if the livelihood of more people will be snatched, “it will put Kashmir in more darkness.”
Shopkeepers said that the government, especially LG Manoj Sinha, must look into it on humanitarian ground and revoke eviction orders immediately.
Government must take action against only those persons who have misused their power and grabbed land while poor people must be exempted as they must be allowed to earn their livelihood whether from shops or from agriculture/horticulture land, they said
Notably, shopkeepers in Keller town of Shopian also requested the administration to revoke eviction orders—(KNO)
