Encroachment clearance: 1.5k vendors in B’luru to hit the streets tomorrow

Bengaluru: Street vendors from Mahadevapura zone are planning to take out a march on Monday in protest against BBMP’s ongoing footpath encroachment clearance drive.Over 1,500 vendors are expected to take part in the march that will start from KR Puram government hospital and conclude at KPCC office on Queens Road, before meeting deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar and submitting a memorandum seeking allocation of street vending zones for them. Shankar, president of Town Vending Committee, Mahadevapura, said: “Before assembly elections, we had two rounds of meetings with Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Shivakumar and were assured that vendors will be given proper vending zones. We were the first to be disturbed once they came to power.”Asserting that vendors are not against the idea of Brand Bengaluru, he said the government should have allocated vending zones to them first and then removed them from the streets. At a recent meeting with the Mahadevapura joint commissioner, Town Vending Committee members had requested that the drive be stopped. Sources said joint commissioners in all zones have asked engineers and members of the Town Vending Committee to identify feasible zones for vendors. Rangaswami, state president of Karnataka Beedhi Badhi Vyaapari Sanghatanegala Okkuta, said a survey should be done once in every six months according to the Street Vendors (Protection of of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. He claimed Centre’s funds are going waste in the absence of a survey and vendors not identified. The last survey in 2018-19 had identified 25,000 street vendors in the city.