Members of the Dakshina Kannada Street Vendors’ Welfare Association took out a protest march on Tuesday, demanding withdrawal of ‘false’ cases registered against the association honorary president and other leaders for questioning the Mangaluru City Corporation’s action in evicting street vendors without conducting the Town Vendors’ Committee meeting.
Launching the march, Democratic Youth Federation of India-Karnataka president Muneer Katipalla alleged that MLA Vedavyasa Kamath was behaving like a dictator and making officials dance to his tunes.
“Officials should work as per the law and not under political compulsion”.
CITU district general secretary Sunil Kumar Bajal said the BJP city administration was ruining the life of the poor by drives against street vendors.
Association honorary president B.K. Imtiyaz said that despite street vending being a recognised activity in the country, the city administration has scant regard for the law.
The MCC officials have resorted to illegal action in evicting street vendors, he said.
Over 500 street vendors took out the march from the sub jail to the MCC office at Lalbagh.
When the MCC Commissioner did not turn up to receive the memorandum, the vendors attempted to lay siege to the corporation building, at which point the Joint Commissioner received the memorandum and agreed to hold the Town Vending Committee meeting on June 17.
