R&H sources said they had served notice on the shop owners at the shopping complex at College Road to remove their shops by Thursdsay noon.

The shop owners evacuated their goods and furniture. There are 19 shops in the market constructed at Adorshapara on the western side of Carmichael College Road.

Roads and Highway Department alleged that Moshiur Rahman Ranga, former JP lawmaker and also Presidium member of the party, illegally occupied 0.11 decimal land of the department and constructed the market in 2004 at a cost of about Tk one crore.

Centering the market, a number of questions were raised among different quarters in the town. They question how the municipality approved plan of the market on government land and why the Roads and Highway Department remained silent when Ranga constructed the market.

When asked, Abdur Rouf Manik, chairman of Rangpur municipality said, his predecessor approved the plan but the record on it was burnt along with other papers in a fire few years ago.

Some sources in the municipality disclosed to this correspondent that the municipality did not approve the plan. Manik referred the name of the then municipal chairman only to save himself, they claimed.

The R&H Executive Engineer in Rangpur declined to make any comment on the issue.

This correspondent also talked to Moshiur Rahman Ranga

over cell phone. He said he purchased the land from a woman. If the Roads and Highway Department owns the land, they may demolish it.