Shops off path to Mall

Darjeeling, Aug. 27: The Darjeeling municipality has decided to remove 182 shops lining Nehru Road that connects the Mall with the rest of the town and is a tourist haunt.

The municipality had initially planned to move 42 shops along a stretch of the road as it had blocked the area where the Darjeeling Planters Club wanted to make a parking lot.

“We had planned to give them a temporary structure nearby but when our engineers went to the spot to dismantle the structures on Saturday, the shopkeepers refused to budge and hurled expletives,” said municipality chairman Amar Singh Rai.

A meeting between the civic authorities, hawkers and the district administration was convened at district magistrate Saumitra Mohan’s office today but though the hawkers agreed to dismantle the structures, their rehabilitation could not be worked out.

After the meeting with the district authorities, the hawkers, sources said, met Bimal Gurung, the chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. “After the meeting it was decided that not just the 42 shops, but all hawkers lining Nehru Road would be removed. They will not be rehabilitated immediately but when the GTA makes a permanent structure, they will be given space,” said Rai. Civic authorities are scouting for space near the Mall to construct a two-storied structure.

The shopkeepers who sell souvenirs for tourists started dismantling their shops late this evening.(TT)