Mangaluru Corporation uses water cannons to disperse street vendors

Mangaluru : The Mangalore City Corporation officials have turned their brutal side, it was so brutal and inhuman that they used water cannons on the poor street vendors in the city. Lakhs of Rupees of their ware, flowers, clothes, fruits, vegetables, grains, spices, and electronic goods were drenched in the water and became useless for the vendors and the users. This incident went viral on social media and has received widespread condemnation from all segments of society.

The civil society was outraged at the brutal act of the civic body and was training themselves to launch a tirade against the civic body and may demand punishment to those officials and politicians who unleashed the act and also may appeal to the Human Rights commission at the central level. The left parties however has started the ball rolling and has assessed the losses not only the goods of the vendors but also the social fabric and citizenry and the social values in larger terms.

Former MLA and KAS officer JR Lobo who served as Commissioner of the City Corporation termed it "absolutely inhuman and mindless, this is not even civic behaviour". He told Hans India.

Citizen rights activists have condemned as unbecoming of a civic body and officials who are paid by the people. BK Imtiyaz a fighter for the street vendors told that the street vendors also have rights to conduct their business in the society and the market, they are stakeholders in the market. They may not have the facilities that the organised market may have, but they also have families to support and a life to live, we will further probe into the incident and bring the perpetrators to the book and appeal to the highest competent body in the country.

Social scientists termed it as an attack on the right to live enshrined in the Indian constitution. The street vendors cater to the lower-income group and casual markets. The social scientists also pointed out that if the civic bodies do not allow the street vendors to conduct their business in the city, they may turn to other meaner types of livelihood, they should be encouraged to make a life with right means.

"Even in Bengaluru, Mysore, and other tier II cities there are street vendors operating normally within their limits and nobody has any grouse against them. In BBMP area we have over 30,000 street vendors and never we had such a brutal act by the BBMP. They might have evicted them for short times, but using water cannons against them was criminal" Basamma president of the street vendor association in BBMP area told Hans India.

The City Corporation or the district administration have no plans for rehabilitating the street vendors when the city goes into the smart city mode, neither the pressure groups were bothered about their welfare. We are also people with families that depend on our petty business for survival, we need protection from the regular eviction drives from the Mangaluru City Corporation in the name of cleaning up the city rue the city dwellers.