10 Ganeshpeth shopkeepers seek to end life, write to Prez

Nagpur: At least 10 shopkeepers from Nagpur’s Ganeshpeth area on Tuesday sent a letter to President of India Draupadi Murmu seeking permission to end their life.
“We shopkeepers pleaded for mercy killing, as our more than five-decade-old shops are being demolished by NHAI for road widening project,” Nathu Urkunde, 72, one of the affected shopkeepers, told TOI.
On Wednesday, a tense situation arose after a NHAI team with bulldozer and police force reached to demolish the shops. Urkunde, a member of Dukandar Ekta Manch, said neither have the shopkeepers received any compensation for their land, which has been forcefully acquired by NHAI for construction of a road, nor are they being rehabilitated like other project affected people.
“We are running our shops here for the last 50 to 55 years. Some of us have puncture repair shop, some sell automobile spare parts, a photocopy shop etc. We have been paying regular rent to the nazul department, property tax to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and also have electric meters. Besides, we have all necessary documents to run the business like shop licence, gomasta etc,” he said.
“We have been running our shops here by following all norms and having valid lease documents from the nazul department,” they claimed.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) office bearer Prabhat Agrawal demanded rehabilitation of the affected shopkeepers. AAP workers on Wednesday too joined the shopkeepers’ protest against the NHAI action on demolition of their shops. However, late on Wednesday, NHAI razed the shops, Agrawal said. NHAI officials claimed that the land is owned by the state government and they followed all norms to acquire it for road widening.
On October 6, 2021, the shopkeepers had received a notice from NHAI to vacate the shops for the road widening project. As per the project report, the road width will be increased to 12 metres.
After this the shopkeepers went to court on October 26, 2021, and demanded rehabilitation. “Now, after 16 months, NHAI officials suddenly came to us on February 11 and urged for an out of court settlement. We agreed and voluntarily provided 15 feet space of our shops to NHAI for the road widening project,” said a shopkeeper. This reduced their shop space drastically, with some left with hardly 3 feet, while some were running shops in 2.5 feet space.
“Before we could heave a sigh of relief, on March 9 this month, NHAI once again sent two-days notice to vacate the place. This move is nothing but cheating,” the shopkeepers said, and added that this development has become a life and death matter for them.
The 10 shopkeepers, their workers, and families make up around 100 people in all, who have no other option but to end their life, said the shopkeepers.