The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) is determined to press ahead with its plan of demarcating hawkers’ zones in each of the wards in the city though there is pressure against it by hawkers and vendors.
Responding to the massive siege to the office of the MCC on Wednesday by the association of street vendors and hawkers, Mayor R. Lingappa said they will not be cowed down by pressure and would not budge from their plan of clearing footpaths of hawkers in the core zone.
“There are vested interest groups, who wish to perpetuate status quo and do not want the MCC to act as it benefits them, and it is these leaders who are agitating,” said Mr. Lingappa. “When the MCC met genuine vendors a few days ago, there was no sign of belligerence unlike those agitating today,” he added.
All the 65 wards in the city have a separate panel comprising the local councillor, a representative of the vendor community apart from the jurisdictional police and public representatives. They will identify suitable spots in each ward, and the hawkers of the ward have to operate and transact their business at the specified area demarcated for the purpose, said the Mayor.
Once the vendors settle down, the MCC will begin the process of issuing identity cards and licence. It is reckoned that there are nearly 5,000 vendors and hawkers in the city, a majority of them in the business of street food. However, their numbers have proliferated in recent months, and there were complaints of hawkers over-running the city. This is why it is imperative to identify hawkers’ zones.
This is not the first time that vendors and the MCC are at loggerheads over the issue.
A similar initiative launched a few years ago under the then Minister S.A. Ramdas remained a non-starter as the vendors refused to shift to the areas identified by the authorities. While a food zone on Valmiki Road did not take off as the CFTRI opposed it, the suggestions for a food court near People’s Park was shot down as it was close to a college.
