Street vendors, fruit sellers occupy vacant bus stand

Chittoor: Street vendors, fruit sellers and Guvvala community people have occupied the vacant bus stand belonging to the Chittoor Municipal Corporation (CMC) here. The bus stand was named after former Chief Minister Kasu Brahmananda Reddy. The civic officials are not trying to evict encroachers despite occupying bus stand land worth crores of rupees. The bus stand was once a main station for city passengers. Thousands of buses from Chennai, Vellore, Bengaluru, Tirupati and Kadapa used to arrive and departure from the bus stand here when there was no RTC bus complex.

Two years ago, bus stand from here was shifted to RTC bus complex. The authorities have proposed to construct a shopping complex with an outlay of Rs 5 crore. But, the civic officials did not take concrete steps to construct the commercial complex. As a result, several fruit sellers and street vendors have occupied the vacant bus stand and reportedly constructed own stalls with the support of local TDP leaders. Though the 70-year-old bus station was vacated long back, the authorities did not remove the board of the bus station. It is learnt that bus station is being used for anti-social activities.

Speaking to The Hans India here on Monday, Municipal Corporation Commissioner G Balasubramanyam admitted that the bus station land was occupied by fruit sellers and street vendors despite serious warnings. “Due to lack of funds, the proposal for constructing the municipal shopping complex has been kept in abeyance. As soon as the Municipal Administration Director accords permission, steps would be taken for materialising the shopping complex project within no time,” he added. As a result of shifting the old bus station to a new one, he said the traffic congestion at Gandhi Statue has come down drastically. He assured that the existing name board of Kasu Brahmananda Reddy would be removed shortly along with the encroachments.

By C Prabhakar Rao