JOIN USThe BBMP on Monday orally submitted before the high court that the service road adjoining the Madiwala-Sarjapur Road has been a market road used by street vendors for the past 30 years.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice H G Ramesh and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Reggie Thomas and three others, seeking directions to the BBMP to demolish the illegal shops and other constructions on the service road and restore it for public use.
The BBMP counsel asserted that it was not a service road, but a market road meant for the vendors. The BBMP has not encroached upon the road, but is constructing 88 shops, each measuring 95 sqft, for the vendors to carry out commercial activities, the counsel stated.
According to the petitioners, the BBMP has started constructing illegal shops on the service road with the objective of accommodating street vendors, who are presently occupying the Madiwala-Sarjapur Road.
The bench gave the BBMP counsel two weeks to file their statement of objections.