On the east of the T.K. Market is the Then-Vadal Street that serves as an entrance to the market, both from the Raja Street and B.B. Street. On the northern side of the street are two-wheelers parked on both sides, leaving very little space for people walking to and from the market.
On the southern side of the street, north of the Big Bazaar Street police outpost, are vendors who have occupied the place by spreading their wares.
From their makeshift shops, covered by tarpaulin sheets, they sell vegetables in small quantities to people who pass through.
These street vendors who have encroached upon the space, do not pay either the Corporation or the market contractor and eat away their business, allege vegetable sellers inside the market.
The market sellers claim that the street vendors pay ₹ 300 a day to people who have ‘reserved’ the encroached places and they in turn pay ₹ 20 to ₹ 40 a day to a syndicate of five people, who have been controlling the business on the street for the past seven to eight years.
The losers in this are the Corporation that does not get revenue, the public who do not have space to move around and the sellers because buyers do not enter the market to purchase vegetables, traders say.
The sellers also say that the authorities have, so far, turned a blind eye to the problem, despite their representation.
Nearly eight years ago, there were very few vendors who occupied the Then-Vadal Street. Seeing the flourishing business, the number of such vendors increased and today there are around 90 such vendors.
The market sellers say their demand is that the Corporation remove the encroachments because they who have been paying rent to the Corporation are seeing a dip in business.
In fact, a few sellers say have suffered as much as 50 % fall in their business because of the encroached vendors.
Asked about the encroachment and loss of revenue, a Corporation official in the know of things says on condition of anonymity that the civic body has plans to include the space on Then-Vadal Street that are to be auctioned in its next auctioning exercise, which is only a couple of months away.
While auctioning the space, the Corporation will impose the condition on the vendors that they should vacate whenever the civic body wants to develop the street.