The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Iron-and-steel market moves out

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Thursday, Oct 01, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Iron-and-steel market moves out

R. Srikanth

Traders comply with Supreme Court order and meet the September-30 deadline

“But it is wrong to say that we cannot have offices in George Town”

— Photo: R.Shivaji Rao

LAST-MINUTE RUSH: Many iron and steel merchants on Wednesday were busy shifting their operations out of George Town. A scene on Sembudoss Street.

CHENNAI: Even as the deadline for shifting the iron-and-steel market from George Town, north Chennai, ended on Wednesday, several merchants were in the process of shifting their establishments to Sathangadu near Manali.

It was a race against time as Tamil Nadu Electricity Board had issued notices stating that it would cut off power supply to their shops in George Town if they did not shift all operations. The Commercial Tax Department has also issued notices sometime ago, warning them that their VAT and CST registration would be cancelled.

Barring those shops from where materials were being moved out, most of the establishments on Sembudoss Street, Jones Street and adjacent lanes and streets in George Town, the hub of the wholesale iron and steel market, were closed. There were little signs of business activity.

South India Iron and Hardware Merchants Association president S. C. M. Jamaldeen said “we respect the Supreme Court order and have requested all our members to move out of George Town. This despite complaints about poor infrastructure and inadequate security in the complex developed by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority in Sathangadu.”

He said the insistence of the State government authorities that the merchants should not even have their offices in George Town was not correct. “They wanted the wholesale iron and steel warehouses to be shifted with which we have complied. But it is wrong to say that we cannot have offices in George Town, it is nothing but violation of fundamental rights,” he said.

When contacted, a senior TNEB official confirmed that the Board had issued notices to hundreds of wholesale merchants in George Town cautioning them that if they failed to shift their operations, the power supply would be cut off. He added that the TNEB was only acting as per a Madras High Court order of April 30 this year.

S.A. Azeez, proprietor of Sadak Steel Corporation, said many merchants like him had shifted their entire operations to Sathangadu to avoid contempt of the court directive. The State Government had issued a notification dated February 23, 1999, designating the ‘Market area’ located in Sathangadu for wholesale iron and steel trade in Chennai Metropolitan Planning Area. The Madras High Court had directed the authorities to complete the process of shifting the iron and steel market by mid-June. The traders in turn had filed a petition in Supreme Court, which extended the deadline for shifting of the iron and steel market to September 30.

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