Local roadside vendors, regular as well as ‘seasonal’, were caught off-guard when temporary structures came up along the carriageways from the Anna Statue junction on the Gandhiji Road, Thanjavur.
Normally, roadside vendors sell readymade garments, footwear, and sometimes groceries packed in plastic pouches along Gandhiji Road. During the festivals such as Pongal and ‘Deepavali, hundreds of vendors join them putting up temporary shops on Gandhiji Road, Anna Salai, and near the Old Bus Stand and the erstwhile Thiruvaiyaru Bus Stand.
Two years ago, the Thanjavur Corporation announced that it would not collect “ground tax” from these traders in view of the pandemic and warned that anyone found collecting money on behalf of the civic body would be dealt with as per the law.
Last year, the seasonal vendors as well as the regular ones went about their festival season business without any problem. This year, the regular roadside vendors were asked to vacate the site all of a sudden to make way for the “traders” to put up their shops at the temporary structures erected by the officials. The autorickshaw drivers attached to the two stands functioning near the Old Bus Stand were also asked to vacate the place, sources said.
Aggrieved by this, the autorickshaw drivers and the vendors registered their objection with the persons who put up the temporary structures, but in vain.
Meanwhile, on November 4, the Thanjavur District Committee secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), C. Jayabal, took up the issue with the Thanjavur Corporation and urged it not to ruin the prospects of hapless roadside vendors as reports were doing the rounds that about ₹25,000 to ₹40,000 per temporary shop was proposed to be collected from the vendors who would like to put up temporary shops around the Anna Statue junction during this Deepavali season.
