The National Hawkers Federation of Tamil Nadu has asked the State Government to direct the local bodies and the police not to eviction street vendors as mandated by the National Policy on Urban Street vendors of 2009.
In a petition submitted to the district administration during the public grievances redress meeting held at the Coimbatore Collectorate on Monday, the federation State convener R. Sevvilam Parithi said that the government must constitute a Town Vending Committee as directed under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill 2012.
The existing street vendors and hawkers must be allowed to continue at their existing locations till such time the committees became operational and vending/hawking zones were created in all districts.
He said that immediate steps must be taken to prevent the harassment of street vendors, who number more than 30,000 in Coimbatore alone.
The federation observed November 25 as the ‘No Eviction Day’ across the country.
Bills pending
The owner of a shop that rents out sounds and light equipment has complained to the district administration that the officials of the Nehru Yuva Kendra, Coimbatore, had failed to settle their bills.
In a petition, R. Ramani, a resident of Kuruchi Sundarapuram, said that he had rented the equipment for an exhibition held by Nehru Yuva Kendra, Coimbatore, at VOC Ground between March 8 and 10.
They had paid only Rs. 1.25 lakh of the total bill amount of Rs. 2.52 lakh.
Despite repeated reminders, they had failed to pay the remaining.
He urged the district administration to direct the Kendra to settle the bill.
