Roadside vendors and Sunday Market Traders’ Association, which is affiliated to the Central Indian Trade Union (CITU), here have opposed the eviction drive of the municipality. The members of the association also plan to take out a procession on September 29 to show their protest.
T. Murugan, honorary president of the association, said: “It is gross injustice on the part of the municipality to disturb the poor street vendors, whereas it is not taking any action to evict persons who encroached upon 1600 acres of poramboke land belonging to the municipality along the drainage canal.”
V.G. Nilavazhagan, CITU unit secretary, said the authorities should not remove the roadside vendors in the pretext of beautifying the city. The municipality should give up the move and the police should not harass them.
The street vendors and small trader have also urged the government to implement provisions of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014 that guarantee their livelihood.
Pointing out the features of new Act, Mr. Murugan and Mr. Nilavazhagan said the new law was enacted only to protect the rights of urban street vendors and to regulate street vending activities.
They said a town vending committee should be constituted and it should conduct a survey of all existing street vendors.
Every street vendor should be issued certificate of vending. “No street vendor shall be relocated or evicted by local authority from the place specified in the certificate of vending unless he has been given thirty days’ notice,” they added.
‘The municipality is not taking action to evict those who encroached upon 1,600 acres of poramboke land along drainage canal’
