Gujarat: Vendors demand apology

AHMEDABAD: Members of

Gujarat Lari Galla

Patharna Sangh, an association of

street vendors

, have demanded an apology from state revenue minister Rajendra Trivedi for comparing them to land grabbers. Vendors demonstrated outside the Ahmedabad collector’s office on Saturday, claiming they would launch a statewide agitation if Trivedi fails to apologize for his remarks.

The vendors demanded that before branding them as ‘land grabbers’ and ‘illegal’, the revenue minister must explain why municipal corporations were dragging their feet on implementing provisions of the protection of livelihood and regulation of street vending Act, 2014.

On Friday, Trivedi had told media in Vadodara that footpaths were meant for pedestrians and nobody should do business there. Trivedi had said that the footpaths should not be encroached upon and using them for business was a type of land grabbing.