Srinagar, Dec 21: Concerned over the plight of dislocated shopkeepers of the Airport Road, the Kashmir Traders Federation (KTF) President Haji Jan Muhammad Koul has appealed the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah to get them rehabilitated.
 Jan, as per an handout, told this while addressing a gathering of the dislocated traders of the Airport Road whose shops were demolished a decade ago.
 The KTF President said the Chief Minister had already assured to business community that the dislocated traders would be rehabilitated.
 Jan said the business community would stand by the “victimized” shopkeepers till they get their share.
 In his address, Ghulam Muhammad Laigaroo, who heads the Co-ordination Committee for the affected traders said, hundreds of his colleagues were rendered jobless by the demolition drive while till now the government had failed to provide them any relief.
 He said the plight of the affected lot was so miserable that they were fed up of “continued starvation”.
 “Some of them are feared to end their lives,” he added.
 Pertinently, the then Mufti Muhammad Sayed led PDP regime had carried out a massive demolition drive along the VIP road depriving hundreds of shopkeepers of their livelihood.
 Though the then government had assured them of rehabilitation, it never realized.
 Infact, the traders said, a mega shopping complex which was constructed for their rehabilitation at Hyderpora was allegedly sold to blue eyed people.
  The affected community has been moving pillar to post and even called on the local MLA and junior minister for Housing and Urban Development, Nasir Sogami. But till now, respite is awaited.  

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