This story is from July 5, 2015

Paying rent but 'illegal': Notice to traders in Sector 7

Shop owners in Feroz Gandhi Colony near Sector 7 are all set to move the city court against the MCG for asking them to vacate their shops.
Paying rent but 'illegal': Notice to traders in Sector 7
GURGAON: Shop owners in Feroz Gandhi Colony near Sector 7 are all set to move the city court against the MCG for asking them to vacate their shops.
On June 12, the civic body had served the shop owners with a show cause notice, allegedly because residents had complained that the establishments were run illegally. Though none of them has vacate their shops within a week of getting the notice, the shop owners now say they will take the MCG to court over its bizarre flip-flops over the legitimacy of 26 shops that have been carrying out business for nearly 15 years.
"We started paying a monthly rent of Rs 600 in the year 2000 to the MCG and also made an initial deposit of Rs 45,000. The rent has been hiked regularly by the MCG and we paid Rs 1,360 as rent for May. How can the government suddenly send a notice asking us to vacate the shops in a week's time?" asked Mange Ram, who runs a mobile repair shop in the market.
Rajinder Singh Rathor, who owns a grocery store in the market, said, "There is no talk of any compensation or refund of the deposit that we had paid 15 years ago."
A cycle-repair shop keeper, Rakesh, said, "The civic body may be right to ask us to vacate our shops but it should happen only when there is a government project planned at the site. And in that case too, the government is supposed to give us a reasonable notice period and pay adequate compensation."
The 26 shops in question were constructed in 2000 at the behest of the gram panchayat of Gurgaon Gaon and were handed over to the MCG in 2003 after the civic body took over the panchayat.

In 2008, some residents had submitted a petition, alleging that the shops were being run illegally. However, on March 30, 2009, the MCG had, in an affidavit to the Punjab and Haryana high court, admitted that the shops were not illegal and given out on lease following which the petition was dismissed.
The shopkeepers submitted a written plea requesting the agency to restrain from vacating the shops.
The joint commissioner of MCG, Vivek Kalia, said, "The matter is being reviewed and hearing is being accorded to both the parties in the case. The shopkeepers have submitted documents and accordingly action will be taken."
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