Councillor Amirda Varshini says she has met the Chennai Corporation commissioner recently and requested him that a simplified licence that is given to small restaurants, also be given to the food stalls located at the south end of Marina Loop Road in Pattinapakkam zone.
These shops, about a dozen of them, specialise in offering seafood and have a large clientele.
The councillor, who represents this zone, says this licence applies to food stalls which are about 200 sq ft. She says that if a formal licence is given then the business will be legal and can be governed by the civic regulations.
She also says that she has discussed this move with the seafood shop owners and they are agreeable to the idea.
As of now, all these stalls are unlicensed.
They came in for severe criticism from judges of the Madras High Court who have been dealing with a case seeking removal of all fish hawking stalls on and off Marina Loop Road.
The Court asked the civic body to remove the illegal seafood stalls too, saying they also encroached on the pavement and roadside, served food in unhygienic conditions and the rush here caused traffic bottlenecks.
Amirda says she has also suggested to GCC that a part of a TN Urban Habitat Board property be used to create a parking lot off the road where patrons of the food stalls can park their bikes and cars.
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