Cuttack, March 19: Orissa High Court today issued a stay order on East Coast Railway's (ECoR) eviction notice to Malgodown traders.

ECoR had served the notice to the traders to vacate Malgodown land before March 31 citing expansion plans and development project proposals.

Around 80 per cent of the land on which the wholesale market has come up falls under the railway, while the remaining 20 per cent land belongs to the Ravenshaw University.

Dipak Kumar Agarwal and other traders had challenged the notice issued by the railway and sought the court's intervention in finding an alternative land where the market can be shifted.

The petition had contended that eviction without rehabilitation would jeopardise public interest as it would not only adversely affect the business, but will also do away with a living remnant of socio-economic history of Cuttack.

"Taking note of it, the single judge bench of Justice Biswanath Rath issued an interim stay on the eviction notice issued to the traders at Malgodown and directed the general manager of ECoR to file a response within two weeks," petitioners' counsel Satyaranjan Pati said.

"The court also issued notices returnable within two weeks to the secretary of the revenue department and collector of Cuttack," Pati said.

"Our basic contention is that there should be no eviction without resettlement. We have sought the court's direction to allow the traders to continue their business at Malgodown till an alternative arrangement is made for their relocation," he said.

In another development, Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab raised the issue before the Union railway minister, Suresh Prabhu, yesterday. "I met the railway minister in Parliament on Thursday afternoon and submitted a written note demanding withdrawal of the notice issued to the traders at Malgodown," Mahtab told The Telegraph today.

"The railway minister said if trade licences were issued to the traders, no eviction notice was supposed to be issued and assured to look into the matter," Mahtab said.

The British government had set up the Malgodown in Cuttack after the great famine of 1866 as a precautionary measure to stock food grains.

The railway has been issuing trade licences to traders at Malgodown since 1925. A month ago, the railway had issued the ultimatum to the traders to vacate the land by March 31 stating that there would be no further renewal of licences from 2015-16.

On March 16, a delegation of Malgodown traders and representatives of the Cuttack Chamber of Commerce had met chief minister Naveen Patnaik and sought his intervention in this matter.

Malgodown is the lifeline for more than 25,000 people, including traders, workers, labourers and transporters. The daily business transaction at the mandi is around Rs 100 crore.

Being the largest wholesale market in the state, the sudden eviction without alternative arrangement for relocation will seriously hit the business, which in turn will affect those who depend on this for their living," a Cuttack Chamber of Commerce spokesperson said.