Osh market vendors are protesting against the demolition of their trading outlets located along Ala-Archa River. Bishkek Vice Mayor Ramiz Aliev met with the entrepreneurs.
According to those gathered, last Friday, City Hall employees demanded that the traders vacate their retail containers by Monday, without notifying them in advance or offering them a place to move.
«You say that you have notified the traders three months in advance. But you only came to us on Friday. If you had told us in advance, we would not have bought the goods. I sell clothes, and I have a debt of 500,000 soms,» one of the entrepreneurs said.
Another woman noted that about 400 vendors legally work in the place where the municipality plans to demolish the containers and honestly pay taxes.
«It is wrong to come suddenly and tell to move to another place. If you had prepared workplaces for us and asked us to move, and we had resisted, it would have been wrong of us. Therefore, we ask to leave us alone until the new market is ready,» she said.
Ramiz Aliev responded that indeed, the traders were working legally, but it was necessary to clear the river banks and build a promenade there. He gave the entrepreneurs 15 days to move to another place.
The official also emphasized that for now the City Hall is ready to provide only 20 places at Osh market, and for the rest of the traders it will look for places at other bazaars. But he did not specify when they would be provided.
On August 7, Mayor Aibek Dzhunushaliev instructed the administration of Leninsky district to complete all necessary work on the territory of Osh market, as well as to dismantle objects constructed without permits along Ala-Archa River and clear the adjacent areas of garbage.
In June, the mayor also conducted an inspection along Ala-Archa River. He instructed to consider the possibility of organizing a park and to prepare draft designs.
