Street vendors up in arms against cops

Street vendors up in arms against cops
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Highlights

The street vendors in the district are facing lot of problems in selling their goods and are urging the government to issue the identity cards and provide them a suitable hawking zone. They also urged the police and civic authorities to stop harassing them by imposing heavy fines and evicting them.

Khammam: The street vendors in the district are facing lot of problems in selling their goods and are urging the government to issue the identity cards and provide them a suitable hawking zone. They also urged the police and civic authorities to stop harassing them by imposing heavy fines and evicting them.

Many of the police officials and civic authorities opine that the street vendors will create nuisance and traffic problems on the road.

According to the data, most of the street vendors are immigrants or laid-off workers, who work for an average 10-12 hours a day, and remain impoverished.

Speaking to The Hans India here on Sunday, V Raghunandan, an advocate said, “As part the Street Vendors Act, 2014, vendors can’t be evicted or relocated without a survey. To protect the street vendors from the harassment of the local police and civic authorities, the local governments must conduct a survey of the existing vendors, issue licenses, identity cards and set up hawking zones.”

He also said that a Street Vendors Committee must be established in the town with the local welfare societies, market societies and Town Planning Officers before the survey was conducted. This committee must take the initiative in sanctioning the loans to the street vendors along with issuing identity cards and licenses.

The officials had conducted a survey in the district and identified 1,373 street vendors in Khammam, 812 in Sattupalli, 673 in Yellandu, 958 in Palvancha, 748 in Manuguru and 870 in Kothagudem.

The municipal officials had collected Rs.100 to 200 from each street vendor for issuing identity cards and sanctioning of loans. But identity cards were issued for only 262 members in Khammam, 349 members in Sattupalli, 67 members in Yellandu, 22 members in Palvancha, 63 members in Manuguru and surprisingly, not even single ID card was issued for the street vendors in Kothagudem till now.

“I have a small tiffin centre opposite to the bus stand. During the last three years, I have been evicted from here several times. The civic authorities assured me that my shop will be rehabilitated, but till now they did not keep their promise,” said the street vendor Rajesh Kumar.

Another vendor named Lakshmi said, “I was threatened by the police for selling the flowers at the railway station. If the civic authorities issue an identity card to me, I can at least show it to the police or the eviction team before they displace me.”

The CPM party division secretary, M Satyanarayana said, “It is the responsibility of the government to provide identity cards and issue the loans on subsidy to the street vendors by allotting suitable hawking zones by identifying government lands.”

Puli Sharath Kumar
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