Cuttack, Dec. 22: Traders at the Dinabandhu Bipani market complex at Buxi Bazar are now staring at an uncertain future as the development authority has declared the cluster unsafe.

The Cuttack Development Authority has put up a notice, urging people not to enter the premises of the complex, one of the oldest commercial centres in the city. It put up the notice after the roads and buildings division of the public works department had carried out an inspection of the market complex in August.

"It needs to be demolished, and there are plans for constructing a new structure to accommodate more traders in the future," said an official.

But, the notice has sparked resentment among the traders, as they fear loss of livelihood. "How can we vacate the market without getting any alternative option?" said Kalandi Charan Behera, a member of the market association.

On the other hand, the traders and the development authority have been at loggerheads over pending dues amounting to nearly Rs 80 lakh. "We had asked for the details of the amount pending against the traders, which the authority is yet to provide," said Behera.

Behera said many traders, who had cleared their dues, were again asked to pay arrears ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 lakh. He said the traders had collected around Rs 7 lakh for settlement of their dues last month, but the authority returned them and was now demanding at least 50 per cent of the total pending amount.

At present, the market complex, which the Cuttack Improvement Trust had established in 1975 and later handed it over to the authority, has 189 shops. Though the authority had earlier tried to demolish the unsafe and dilapidated structure twice in the past, it was stalled following protests by the traders.

"At present, nearly 30 to 40 shops are lying vacant and as the authority had not taken any measures to maintain the shops, we had invested money in carrying out annual repairs on our own," said Pramod Behera, a trader.

An official said many traders had been subletting their shops. Notices have been served to them for payment of the dues and vacating the complex as it has been declared unsafe. "We are planning to build a new market complex, so that new traders can also be accommodated here in a phased manner. We will discuss with the traders' association to resolve the pending issues at the earliest," said the authority's enforcement officer R.C. Swain.