Dhaka South City Corporation yesterday demolished several hundred illegal shops at Fulbaria Supermarket-2 in Gulistan, which was built violating the main design of the supermarket.

Traders and shop owners protested the DSCC move.

Some 911 shops were constructed illegally in the open and parking spaces of the market's A, B, and C blocks (City Plaza, Nagar Plaza and Zaker Plaza) over the years.

Previous mayor Sayeed Khokon marked most of the shops as illegal and current Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh started the demolition. 

Sources said crores of taka were spent in underhand dealings for constructing and running the illegal shops over the years.

DSCC officials initially faced obstruction from shopkeepers when they went to knock down the illegal parts of the supermarket.

Yesterday, shopkeepers threw brick chunks from inside the market at the DSCC team. Police fired teargas canisters to bring the situation under control.

Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh after a programme at the Nagar Bhaban yesterday said many shops were constructed violating the main design of the DSCC supermarket.

He said people on different occasions built the shops in the open and parking spaces.

"We have decided to tear down illegal shops from all DSCC markets and as part of it, we are demolishing the illegal shops from the three markets under Fulbaria Supermarket-2. Such drives will gradually be conducted in other markets."

Hundreds of illegal shops there. The market had at least 911 shops built violating its design. Photo: Amran Hossain

HOW SHOPS WERE BUILT

Some 2,300 shops were constructed at the Fulbaria Supermarket-2 following the main design. But 911 others were built illegally on different times. Of them, 308 are in block-A, 292 in block-B, and 311 in block-C.

DSCC sources said the construction of the illegal shops in the basement started in 1997 when late Mohammad Hanif was the mayor. With some conditions, he allowed the traders association concerned to run businesses in the basement temporarily.

During the tenure of late mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, some traders also got permission to run businesses temporarily.

But since 2012, the construction of illegal shops went on on a large scale following the then administrator's permission, they said.

DSCC sources said though the owners and traders got permission from the administration to temporarily run several hundred shops for rent, they made permanent structures and increased the number of shops to 911.

Firoz Ahmed, general secretary of Zakir Market's Owners Samity, said they got the allotment of 911 shops during the tenure of the DSCC administrator.

He added that they paid rent only for two months and after that the DSCC stopped taking rent. The other administrators and mayor Sayeed Khokon did not take any rent from them.

He said in 2018, they filed a writ petition with the High Court against the DSCC move to demolish their shops. 

After that, a section of DSCC officials took Tk 5 to 10 lakh from each of them as outstanding rent and giving them trade licences, he claimed.

Firoz said the DSCC did not give them any trade licence.

The DSCC again stopped taking rent after Taposh became mayor, he said, adding that they got the notice of eviction on December 6.

"We sought one month's time from the mayor, but we did not get it," he said.

Contacted, mayor Khokon told The Daily Star that illegal shops had been running there for a long time.

He said when they went to demolish those, the shop owners and traders filed a writ petition with the HC and following the HC directives, they revised their decision at a board meeting of the DSCC.

He said following the decision, they made the shops that paid their rents legal.

About taking money, Khokon said the DSCC did not take any money for giving the traders licences, it just took all the outstanding rent from them.

TRADERS IN CRISIS

Many traders, who took shops spending Tk 70 to Tk 80 lakh, are now in a serious trouble.

"I bought my shop for Tk 20 lakh from Firoz, a representative of the owners samity, in 2012. Later in 2018, I had to give Tk 10 lakh to the city corporation to make my shop legal," claimed Siddiqur Rahman.

He added that he would fall into a big financial trouble.

Rashedul Islam, another shop owner, said they had "purchased" two shops for Tk 75 lakh each.

He said the DSCC in 2018 closed their shops and they had to pay Tk 22 lakh to the city corporation for running their business.