SHILLONG, Nov 13: Amidst widespread accusations of delay in issuing trading licensces to traders of Bholaganj and Ichamati, the CEM of Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council, Titosstarwell Chyne, has asserted that the Council had already started to issue trading licence to genuine traders who have all the relevant papers and documents to substantiate their application.
Speaking to The Shillong Times here today, the KHADC CEM while referring to Bholaganj said that there are altogether 61 trading licence holders in the village out of which 47 did not turn up to the council for licence.
“The remaining who came did not submit the NOC from Rangbah Shnong, tenancy NOC from their landlords and even the fees,” Chyne said.
Similarly, Chyne said that in Ichamati, there are 19 trading licence holders but only eight turned up before the council and they too did not possess valid documents.
“They made an issue out of nothing saying we are delaying the licence but when they don’t furnish the documents, how can we issued the trading licence,” Chyne added.
Stating that two or three people who are making accusations of being harassed by KHADC are not even trading licence holders, he made it clear that the KHADC would now be strict and the Council would meticulously check all the illegal traders in Ichamati as there are more than 19 traders in the village.
“If you go to Ichamati, you will find that there are many more traders than 19,” he said.
When asked about the delay in issuing trading licence to many trading license holders in Shillong and other parts of the state, he said many trading licence holders did not turn up for collection of the licence even as he added that processing of the licence does take some time.
Asserting that there were some problems in the printing section which took time to process the trading licence for people, he added that he is personally looking into the matter of issuing licences to genuine holders. In addition, the COVID situation also delayed the whole process as very few people came to KHADC for their licence.
Stating that there was a backlog of applications since last year, the CEM however added that the Council is now working and clearing the trading licence of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
