Plea to end eviction drive in Mysuru

The Mysore City Corporation (MCC) has been urged to call off the ongoing eviction drive taken up to clear the footpaths off hawkers.

The Association of Hawkers in the city have also urged the MCC to declare or notify hawkers zone to enable them to transact business and prepare a rehabilitation package for them.

The MCC launched an eviction drive clearing the footpaths of scores of fast food vendors from different parts of the city on the grounds of impeding pedestrian movement and degrading the local environment. Besides, there were complaints against street food vendors of comprising hygiene and the MCC Health Officer averred that it could lead to outbreak of diseases in the run-up to the monsoon.

Though the MCC Commissioner C.G. Betsurmath has promised to identify hawkers zone in the city, the association has flayed the delay in notifying it as a result of which street vendors faced uncertainty. ‘It has been years since the MCC promised to identify hawkers zone in 34 different areas of the city, it is yet to materialize and the street vendors have been left in the lurch’’, said the Association President Dodmane Manjunath.

It is estimated that there are nearly 5,000 fast food vendors in the city alone besides hawkers dealing with other products but in the absence of a notified hawkers zone they have proliferated across the city. The local NGOs, while supporting the MCC action on the grounds that the hawkers were over-running the city footpaths, have also sought the notification of hawkers zone to enable the street vendors to transact their business without fear of eviction.

In the meantime, the street vendors association have threatened to launch an agitation in case the MCC did not stop its eviction drive immediately.