madurai cracking the whip on erring shopkeepers in mattuthavani integrated bus terminal city corporation commissioner who conducted an inspection ordered the closure of about seven shops which had been eluding from paying the rent for the last three months officials said the major crackdown on wednesday against the shopkeepers was conducted after receiving a large number of complaints the shopkeepers were encroaching public space creating hardship for the passengers there are roughly 180 shops constructed by the corporation many violations were identified during the inspection about seven shops have been closed down and the rest of the shops have been severely warned many shops do not even have the shutters to close and seal commissioner c kathiravan ordered his officials to fine each shop without shutters with rs 30 000 and force them to install it immediately cleanliness was not properly maintained and shops were found modified without the consent of the civic authorities even as the shops were not permitted to use stoves to prepare food many were found doing it items kept outside encroaching the public space including eatables were seized he ordered the officials to raze down the modifications made by the shopkeepers kathiravan said almost all the shops here violated the rules ultimately creating hardship for the passengers more than 20 of the shops here have not paid the rent for the past three months it is clearly evident that the monitoring officials have failed to look into the issues although action has not been initiated this time they will be taken to task if they continue with the same attitude he said expecting that the officials and shopkeepers would not follow his instructions the commissioner came back in a few minutes by leaving his vehicle outside and true to his expectations he found the officials having left the place without carrying out the works assigned to them and the shopkeepers continuing with their business leaving his instructions to the wind he then instructed the officials to seal the erring shops make the changes he had instructed about and asked them to send the photos of completed tasks having seized a large amount of edible items like biscuits fruits and sweets in the sudden eviction drive the civic body donated them to old age and childrens homes in the city the officials seized materials like school bags which were sold encroaching the public area the school bags were asked to be donated to corporation school students who needed oneoffice space likely corporation authorities who inspected the mattuthavani integrated bus terminal after receiving complaints from the public are planning to construct spaces which can be occupied for office use on rental c kathiravan corporation commissioner along with officials including a devadoss assistant commissioner inspected the buildings which house the shops had a short discussion with engineering section officials too the commissioner mooted the plan of constructing a first floor which can be rented to private parties as office building there is space to the tune of thousands