Shopkeepers should be compensated

Editor,
This is regarding the construction of the underpass at Bank Tinali and its impact on the shopkeepers of Legi Complex and Bank Tinali area.

The shopkeepers of Legi Complex and Bank Tinali area are bearing the brunt of road closure owing to underpass construction in the form of reduction in sale of goods while many goods which have been procured are lying unutilized and many have got expired.

Due to these, the shopkeepers are unable to pay the rent for their shops, their house rent, as well as staff salary. Businesses of 50 shopkeepers are at stake. These shopkeepers have already been affected by the lockdown imposed during the first wave of Covid-19 last year badly.

The incomes of the shopkeepers have been badly affected and the shops are on the verge of closure due to the crisis triggered by Covid-19 as well as the underpass construction at Bank Tinali.

I urge the state government to provide compensation/assistance to the aggrieved shopkeepers of Legi Complex and Bank Tinali area by treating it as special case on humanitarian grounds.

Biri Kame,
Ex-general secretary,
Itanagar Market Welfare Association