HYDERABAD, Sept 8: Shopkeepers of two shopping centres observed a token shutter-down strike on Saturday at the Gymkhana Chowk in protest against what they described as an unjustified rate of taxes imposed by the Cantonment Board of Hyderabad (CBH), encroachment, illegal parking lots and insanitation.

Shopkeepers of Chandni Shopping Mall and Gul Centre closed their shops for 30 minutes and chanted slogans against the board and Cantonment Executive Officer (CEO) Qazi Rizwan for their failure to address issues being faced by traders.

They demanded that the CBH and the government reduce taxes, remove encroachments and illegal parking lots and ensure proper sanitation.

Ghazi Salahuddin, chairman of the peace committee of the CBH, Mohammad Aslam Khan Surjani, chairman of Gul Centre Shopkeeper Association, and Salahuddin, a shopkeeper, said shopkeepers had been facing problems, but the CBH played no role.

They claimed that recently CBH’s sanitary inspector Ahsanul Haq posing as food inspector had harassed some shopkeepers in the name of food sampling. An application had been submitted to the CBH authorities against the official but no action was taken against him, they said.

They alleged that an official of the CBH, Ahsan, collected extortion from them and when traders refused, they were issued notices. They said that some of them closed their shops on Friday night in protest against his high handedness.

They threatened that if the CBH did not resolve their problems, they would widen the protest and shut their businesses.

The CEO had promised to see a delegation of shopkeepers on Saturday but he did not meet traders despite a demonstration.—BoC