Samtse municipality started removing market sheds located in the core town area today, leaving more than twenty vendors without a space to run their businesses. The market sheds are being removed to give way to new town development.
The present market area will be used to store construction materials for the new town development, which is already in progress.
Vendors watched helplessly as the municipal authorities removed the markets sheds one after another. It means an end to their daily earning, something they never saw this coming.
Garment vendors are the hardest hit with no other place to run the business, while the vegetable vendors have been provided with a new space, which is located about five minutes walk from the current market shed.
Sun Maya Barailey is one of the affected garment vendors. She started her garment business with the help of loan. “I have to repay Nu 6,000 every month. I have no idea how to repay the loan now with no earnings,” said Sun Maya Barailey.
The garment vendors have written twice to the municipal requesting for a new space after they were issued a notification to vacate. But their appeal for space was turned down. The municipal authorities say the sheds were never for garment vendors.
As per the town development plan, the present eighteen shops in the town will be replaced by an arcade by 2020. There are also plans to develop a children’s park in the future.
Even as the market was being brought down sheet by sheet, the garment vendors were hoping against hope. They are hopeful the authority would allow them to use the space to run their businesses until they find a space in the newly constructed buildings in the town.
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