16 May 2004	Sunday	25 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

HYDERABAD, May 15: The City Taluka Nazim Moinuddin Sheikh has accused the police of not cooperating with the Taluka municipal administration to recover Rs25 million outstanding against its tenants.

Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, he said that if the administration failed to provide civic facilities to the people then it should not be held responsible for it.

He said that TMA officials - Muneer, Afzal and Shahid - were held hostage and beaten by shopkeepers of the Azimushan cloth market on Thursday but the police did not take action against the culprits on his complain.

He said that he himself belonged to the business community but some self-styled leaders were pressurising him.

He claimed that tenants in the city owed around Rs25 million to the TMA and without the police cooperation the amount could not be recovered.

Meanwhile, shopkeepers of the Azimushan cloth market closed their shops and staged a sit-in outside the Taluka city council to protest against the demolition of two shops in the market.

Taluka City Nazim Moinuddin Sheikh alleged that the protesters stoned the TCC building and hurdled abuses at him.

Shopkeepers Aziz Sanbhri, Ikram Guddo, Saleem Vohra, Ameen Suleman and others accused the Taluka Nazim of unleashing a reign of terror.

They said that they had called a meeting of 55 associations of shopkeepers to discuss the strategy.

They alleged that the Taluka Nazim was involved in corruption and wanted to sell the market for millions of rupees. They demanded that a corruption case should be registered against him.