erodechennai the cpm on tuesday demanded that chief minister m k stalin ensure the livelihood of 13 dalit beef traders whose shops were razed down by the punjaipuliampatti municipality in erode districtthe shops were demolished in november last year as they were functioning without permission from the municipality since the requests of shop owners to municipal authorities and erode district administration went unheeded the cpm has taken up the issuein a statement issued on tuesday cpm state secretary k balakrishnan said members of the arunthathiyar community were running the beef stalls in the weekly market of the punjaipuliampatti municipality for over 50 yearson november 22 last year the municipality administration bulldozed the shops and destroyed them without any prior announcementbalakrishnan said it was not correct to prevent the sale of beef when other meat stalls were operating near the market the sale of beef was the sole livelihood of these 13 families and they have been affected for the past three months he said the municipality should permit them to run the shops at the weekly market or provide an alternative placewhen contacted by toi the vicechairman of the punjaipuliampatty municipality p a chidambaram said this was not a case of caste discrimination our municipal chairman t janarthanan himself is a dalit he said adding that the beef shops were unauthorisedhe said the beef stalls were opened years back by four residents of punjaipuliampatti when there were no houses near the weekly market later traders from outside punjaipuliampatti also set up shops taking the total number of beef stalls to 15 over the years the locality developed into a residential area and the residents objected to beef stallsbecause of repeated petitions from the public the shops were removed he said he said the municipality was ready to provide alternative sites to traders from punjaipuliampatti but not to traders from other placesone of the beef stall owners and the secretary of the all merchants association m gopalakrishnan said the municipality should provide a modern slaughterhouse for them so that the question of poor hygiene does not arise our livelihood is dependent on the beef trade we have been suffering for the past three months he said