Evicting vendors will not help

Mangaluru: The Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry is also of the opinion that one cannot wish away the presence of street vendors in any city but it is the responsibility of the local civic bodies and the planners to give them legal trade licences and allow them to function in the city, it is always better to have hawking zones earmarked for their business" Speaking to The Hans India former Chairman of the Mangalore Urban Development Authority Ibrahim Kodijal said "I have been frequently hearing about this eviction drive from Mangaluru City Corporation, it is unfortunate, the street vendors do occupy public places for their business, but since there was no place for them to legally carry out their business, the system to be blamed and not the street vendors.

Both Mangaluru Development Authority and the Mangaluru City Corporation should look at the problem in a different angle where the public places should be kept free from obstacles and in the same spirit the street vendors who are also citizens of Mangaluru city should be given alternative places to carry out their business".

The Mangaluru City Corporation council had been torn over the issue of street vending the BJP which has been opposing allowing the street vendors the Congress was hell bent on retaining them. Both the parties were using the issue to their own political ends, they do not really want to the issue to have a solution says civic activists.

However, the left parties have been carrying out a campaign in favour of the street vendors which has sustained them till now. BK Imtiyaz president of the Dakshina Kannada Jilla Beedibadi Vyaparasthara Shreyobhivraddhi Sangha told that "we have given a charter of 7 demands to the City Corporation Commissioner which outlines the problems faced by the street vendors The charter includes inhuman eviction of street vendors and destruction of their push carts, petty shops and the stock" Imtiyaz told Hans India. An activist who is a teacher in the local social work school quoting a survey says, "even the headload vendors have their own clientele, most of the middle class and lower middle class people do buy things from them, it is a low cost market where the margin was not more than 5-6 per cent when compared to the regular market operators who charge more than 20-30 per cent on each item.

Mayor of Mangaluru Dayananda Anchan said "we definitely do have a plan to accommodate the street vendors,.'