Street vendors evicted from various parts of city amid protests by union

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Thousands of push-cart and street vendors make their living by hawking their goods on the footpaths of the city for years.

However with no support from either the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) or the Revenue department, they are under constant peril of being evicted. In after one such eviction drive initiated by the BBMP and the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) On Wednesday, to clear the street of vendors in Chickpet, Malleswaram, Jayanagar and other parts of the city, the traders' association held a protest to condemn the actions by the authorities.

On February 2, the association led by the union president Babu, had protested outside the BBMP office demanding them to either extend the vending certificates or issue new ones. However, the Special Commissioner, BBMP, had sent them away assuring them of resolving their issues.

"The poor street vendors have set up their shops to ease their lives by earning some money. However the shops of street vendors are being cleared illegally by the authorities. We have been requesting the BBMP to issue a vending certificate to them, but no one responded to our pleas and now they have come to evict us from here" Babu told News Trail.

The traffic police have a different version of the story. The police said, "Footpath encroachment by shops is being cleared after clear instructions. Legal action will be taken if they create similar behavior again. We are allowing citizens to move on the footpath by patrolling daily," police said.

However the netizens have condemned this action by the BTP and BBMP. The Bengaluru Jilla Beedhi Vayapari Sanghatanegala Okkuta has alleged that the state government has completely failed to implement the central government's National Urban Livelihood and Protection of Street Vendors Act.

"The state government has failed to implement all the schemes of the central government. All the street vendors in the state should be established in the market zone and they should be shifted there. It is the government's job to conduct a survey of the street vendors and issue them certificates and identity cards," the association said. "Police harassment can be avoided if the list of street vendors is shared with the police by the officials of the local bodies," they added.