Protesting against what they termed harassment of street vendors and their forcible eviction, hundreds of street vendors marched to the municipal corporation premises in Hubballi on Tuesday and staged a demonstration seeking justice.
Led by office-bearers of the federation of various Dalit organistaions and Dharwad district unit of Federation of Karnataka Street Vendors Organisations, the street vendors gathered in large numbers to protest against the drive being carried out by the municipal corporation for eviction of street vendors from pavements and other places.
The street vendors said that without following the due procedure as directed by the Supreme Court and without conducting meeting of the town market committee, the officials with the support of the police were harassing the street vendors and were booking cases against them. They said that the municipal authorities suddenly started evicting street vendors who were already going through a rough phase due to the lockdown and post-lockdown restrictions and were trying to make ends meet.
They said that it seemed that the authorities were acting under pressure causing hardships to the street vendors.
They sought the dismissal of the Assistant Commissioner of Zone No 9 of the municipal corporation, who, according to them, was harassing and exploiting street vendors.
They demanded that any decision on eviction of street vendors should be preceded with identification of hawking zones in the municipal limits and subsequent creation of basic infrastructure for them in such zones.
Leading the protest Gurunath Ullikashi, Premanath Chikkatumbal, Venkatesh Mestri, Yamanur Gudihal, Riyaz Dalayat and others urged the officials to immediately return the goods seized from the street vendors without any imposition of penalty and also to take immediate steps to hold a meeting of the market committee as per the guidelines issued by Union government’s Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.
They also sought action against commercial buildings that had encroached upon parking spaces and urged the authorities to clear the parking areas.
The protestors submitted a memorandum addressed to the Hubballi Dharwad Municipal Commissioner seeking immediate steps to stop harassment of street vendors. The protestors subsequently submitted another memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad and Police Commissioner of the twin cities seeking remedial measures. The municipal authorities are carrying out a special drive to clear encroachments on pavements by shopkeepers and street vendors in the last few days.
