Chandigarh: At a loss, relocated vendors up ante against MC's move

CHANDIGARH: Claiming to have suffered losses since their relocation to designated vending sites, the street vendors staged a silent protest in Sector 22 on Tuesday and termed the Chandigarh municipal corporation's relocation move as an ill-planned decision.
Taking a dig at the MC and town vending committee (TVC), the vendors said the move has turned them into "beggars", as they get hardly any customer at the designated sites.
Naresh Kumar Goyal, chairman of Chandigarh vendors union, said they would continue their protest in different markets in the coming days. The MC's decision to shift vendors from Sector 22 to Sector 15 was a bad decision, which has affected not only vendors, but their families too, he added.
Ram Kumar, a vendor, said earlier he sold clothes in Sector 22 and earned enough to support his family, but since he has shifted to Sector 15 vending zone, his fortunes have changed for the worse. Currently, he is doing is hardly any business, he added.
Sandeep Kumar, once a flourishing vendor in Sector 19 market, also participated in protest. He said as there is hardly any footfall in Sector 15 vending zone, the MC should shift them back to Sector 19, where he had been selling glass products for the past many years.
The association members have held several protests over the past few months. They had moved the Punjab and Haryana high court and then the Supreme Court, but did not get any relief. In line with the HC order, the civic body and some UT departments in December carried out the exercise to shift the vendors from non-designated areas to their designated locations.
"We have no land in the city and some chunks of the vacant land lying are already planned for the future. Therefore, the allotted sites are the best sites for vending," an UT official said.