Thrissur Corporation is setting a model in rehabilitating street vendors. Work on the rehabilitation centre is nearing completion.
Street vendors live in constant threat of raids by either the traffic police or Corporation officials. As a result, they could not even sell their ware in peace. The decision of the city Corporation to rehabilitate them might have come as a surprise to them.
A suitable vendor shed is getting ready where they can sit without tension and focus on their sale. The rehabilitation centre has been planned to clean city footpath and platforms. The rehabilitation shed has been constructed near Sakthan Thampuran bus stand.
There were complaints about the selection criteria of vendors to be rehabilitated. Though a comprehensive list was prepared earlier, some new names allegedly entered the list in the last stages, the vendors alleged. Some of the old-timers went to court against this.
There was much hue and cry over the evacuation of vendors from both sides of the stretch from Pattalam road to Sakthan Thampuran stand during the tenure of former Mayor I.P. Paul.
Mayor Rajan Pallan said the centre would be opened soon after Onam.
