LAHORE, Dec 28: Sabzi Mandi (Kot Lakhpat) traders have decided to expand their protest move to other parts of the province in case the decision to shift vegetable and fruit market from Kot Lakhpat to Gajomta area on Ferozepur Road was not withdrawn.

“The local administration wants to destroy our business which we had started after the allotment of as many as 260 shops built by the Lahore Development Authority in 1978,” Anjuman-i-Tajran coordinator Muhammad Shahid told Dawn on Tuesday.

He said the administration desired to shift the market on the pretext of traffic congestion and other environmental issues. He said steps should be taken to control the traffic instead of disturbing businesses.

Shahid said the market shopkeepers had worked hard to establish their businesses having an annual trade volume of Rs10 billion. The total market price of all shops at the market amounted to nearly Rs8 billion, he claimed.

He said Anjuman office-bearers had started contacting the representatives of all vegetable and fruit markets of the province so as to expand the protest move to other cities in case the government didn't fulfill their genuine demands.

The shopkeepers were more interested in retaining their shops than the compensation the government wants to pay them, he said. “It will perhaps not be possible for us to vacate our shops,” he added.

About the plan to shift the market, DCO Ahad Cheema said the administration would pay a handsome price to traders for their shops that would be according to the market value of the properties, besides allotting new shops to the affected.

He said the presence of vegetable and fruit market at Kot Lakhpat was not only causing serious traffic problems on Ferozepur Road but also affecting the health of people living in the area.

Claiming many fruit and vegetable merchants were in favour of the plan, he added: “We will, however, try our level best to take all those onboard who are annoyed with this decision.”

Meanwhile, a handout issued by the DCO office on Tuesday said the process for shifting vegetable and fruit market from Kot Lakhpat to Gajomata, measuring 1,000 kanal, will be completed till January 31, 2011.

It said the district administration would ensure facilities like cold storage, toilets, Sui gas, water, electricity, mosque, bank, post office and security etc at the new market.

A five-member committee had been constituted to assess the market value of the Kot Lakhpat Sabzi Mandi shops so as to make fair compensation payments to the traders, the handout added.

Earlier, scores of fruit and vegetable market traders staged a protest demonstration against the shifting of the market to new place.

They raised slogans against the administration.