Heritage markets that are an integral part of the city’s culture and important public spaces are being systematically destroyed on the plea that they are in bad shape and need to be pulled down. But the fact is that they have been neglected by the civic authorities, who now want to pull them down and erect more swanky malls and complexes.
The BBMP’s experience in building market complexes has been disastrous. The Madiwala market, the first such complex, was built by the BBMP by evicting the traders there. No traders went into the market; instead, they chose to do business on the footpath. Even customers did not want to exert themselves by climbing the stairs of the new complex.
The Madiwala market was leased to Dhavanam Jewellers in 2007 for 29 years and will revert to the BBMP after that. The BBMP rakes in revenue of `4 crore per year. Today, Total Mall has replaced the old heritage market, a classic example of what the BBMP is capable of!
“We are pushed to the road just because BBMP took over the area where Total Mall now exists. The corporation denied us space in the renovated market and promised to build shops for us elsewhere. This forced us to set up our shops on the road located parallel to Total Mall. It's been years now and all we hear is false promises from the BBMP,” said Naushad Khan, a vegetable trader at the Madiwala Market. The Madiwala Market was located on both sides of the road. But the police removed the market from one side, where the Madiwala police station is located. Now the area has close to 917 small shops occupying most of the road. “BBMP had promised to give us 50 shops in the renovated market. But they did not do so. Later, they promised to replace our temporary shops with permanent shops on the road near Total Mall. Now, when we approach BBMP, all they say is that the proposal to build shops for traders has to come up in the budget and the traders will have to wait for some more time,” said another trader at Madiwala Market, Ganesh.