Street vendors demand no action till Diwali festival

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The Shaheed Bhagat Singh Hawkers union organised a protest outside the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) headquarters on Monday afternoon in heavy rain, demanding an end to the actions of the anti-encroachment section against street vendors and handcarts ahead of Diwali festival. The agitators claimed that these vendors hail from economically weaker sections and if the action continues, how they would sustain their livelihoods.

The agitators through a memorandum to the administrator stated that the municipal authorities are violating the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. They accused the administration of unlawfully confiscating the belongings of handcarts without following due process, such as conducting a panchnama. There are 1,498 street vendors marked as official by the municipal survey have also had their belongings taken away. They requested that no further action be taken until the Diwali festival and suggested that barricades be set up at Paithan Gate, as done in previous years.

The memorandum also warned that if the crackdown on handcarts continues, the Union, along with affiliated organisations like AITUC and the National Hawkers Federation, would escalate their protests, stated the memorandum endorsed by Adv Abhay Takasal, Vijay Rojekar, and Shaikh Isaaq.