Pune: Walkers, traders miffed at MG Road hawkers

PUNE: The increasing number of illegal vendors along M G Road, especially between Bata Chowk and Hotel Aurora Towers, has become a cause for concerns for traders, local residents and customers alike.
The residents said the number of vendors has been multiplying ever since the Covid-induced lockdown eased.

Peter D’Cruz, a resident of the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) limits, said, “The number of street vendors has doubled over the past few days causing much inconvenience for the pedestrians and affecting traffic movement.At spots like both sides of Aurora Towers junction and outside Wonderland, the vendors have taken over the roads and pavements. This is a major problem for the pedestrians and the motorists.”
Pune Camp Merchants Association president Cawas Pundole the vendors had been creating a lot of problems and the situation was only deteriorating. “The customers cannot enter the shop since these hawkers have taken over the pavements. Not only they sit along the pavements, but they also keep shouting to attract customers,” he said.
“If the traders say anything to the vendors, they start fighting. Their attitude is like they own the space and the traders are encroaching upon it. We pay income tax, Goods and Services Tax and Cantonment taxes. But they obstruct the ways to our shops. People prefer to visit malls because of the nuisance caused by the vendors,” he said.
Siddharth Parmar, a student, said, “It is becoming difficult to walk on the pavement. The vendors have taken over the pavements. With customers crowding around them, there’s almost no space left for the pedestrians. My mother and I were forced to walk on the carriageway, along with the moving vehicles, due to this. If the authorities cannot move the vendors, they should widen the pavements to fit both the pedestrians and the hawkers.”
D’Cruz and several traders said the PCB’s nuisance squad, entrusted with the task of evicting the illegal hawkers, “has been ineffective in putting an end to the menace”. D’Cruz said, “The vendors know when the nuisance squad leaves from Golibar Maidan and they disappear into the bylanes.” Pundole said, “As soon as the vehicle moves away, the vendors come out again.”
Speaking on the issue, PCB chief executive officer Amit Kumar said the nuisance squad has been taking “routine action” against the illegal vendors on MG Road.