Kothagudem: Shopping complexes built for street vendors remain unused

The sheds have become shelters for beggars and the local youths to consume liquor in the nights much to the inconvenience of the public living in the vicinity of the complexes.

Kothagudem: Shopping complexes built by Kothagudem municipality at different places in the town for street vendors have remained unused for the past three years.

The municipality built the complexes at Coolie Line area and at Government General Hospital to address the traffic problem caused by the street vendors selling fruits and vegetables by the side of main roads in the town. They were built using Pattana Pragathi funds.

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The shopping complexes were inaugurated on August 21 and since then they have remained vacant. But the shops have not been allotted to the vendors since then as officials allegedly failed to shift the vendors to the shopping complexes.

As they remained unused the locals have stolen tin sheets from the roof of the sheds. On the other hand the sheds have become shelters for beggars and the local youths to consume liquor in the nights much to the inconvenience of the public living in the vicinity of the complexes.

At the Coolie Line area as many as 36 sheds have been built while at the government hospital 26 sheds have been constructed. Councillors concerned have held officials responsible for not bringing the shopping complexes, built spending lakhs of rupees, into use.

A councillor, Srinivas Reddy complained that due to negligence of municipal officials the very purpose of building the shopping complexes has been defeated. Municipal authorities should take immediate steps to shift the vendors to the complexes by allotting shops to them, he said.