CPI and AITUC leaders demand justice for street vendors amid anti-encroachment drive

CPI and All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) leaders from the state and other parts of the country on Sunday criticised the action taken by the administration against the street vendors in the name of anti-encroachment drive, adding that several provisions of existing laws are being violated in the action.While addressing the media persons at CPI’s state office, the leaders also demanded that the administration should issue identity cards to vendors, hold elections and activate the town vendor committee, stop use of bulldozers without notice and confiscate valuables from vendors as per the rules.CPI state secretary Mahendra Pathak said that the administration should discontinue uprooting the vendors before rehabilitating them in different places.The CPI leaders said that there has been no survey to identify the vendors in the past nine years, adding that the tenure of the committee has ended four years ago.AITUC leaders who took part in the meeting also termed the administrative action as injustice and expressed the need for an agitation on the issue.AITUC’s state general secretary Ashok Yadav said that his organisation was standing by the vendors in their struggle against the alleged govt suppressive policies.Mohammad Haider of Delhi said that treating the vendors as criminals is a murder of democracy. Mohmmad Sabir of Rajasthan said that he would fight from the streets to the courts on the issue. Jayant Das of Odisha said that the step was an attempt to scare the vendors but we are all united with them.