Street vendors and hawkers in the city took out a rally from Townhall to AMC office on Thursday morning protesting against the loss of livelihood to thousands of their brethren during the ongoing drive to remove encroachments on the roadside. Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani also met the displaced and announced his support. They were told not to operate on main roads and roads with a width of 24 metre or more.
Protesters said that the drive to clear encroachments from roads has deprived thousands of citizens of their livelihood. They are demanding alternate locations from where they can continue their business. They then met Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra. "The commissioner specified roads where we should not work. He also assured that all of us will get licenses and identity cards. With this assurances, we are withdrawing our protests," said Rakesh Maheria, who operates a lorry at Prahladnagar Garden and took the lead in uniting the street vendors and hawkers.
Meanwhile, Gujarat Unorganized Workers Congress (GPUWC) has opposed the statement by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani that the drive carried out in Ahmedabad will also be replicated in all the eight municipal corporations has enraged GPUWC. "This is nothing but an attempt to abolish informal sector from state's economy. This will render thousands jobless. If the state government persists with the drive, unorganized workers will oppose entry of CM at various places and show black flags," said Ashok Punjabi, president of GPUWC.
Vendors and hawkers led by GPUWC will take out another rally from Sardarbag to AMC on Friday. "We will meet the commissioner. Depending upon his course of response, we will chalk out our future strategy," he said. He suggested that the municipal corporation should allocate spaces for close to 40,000 vendors and hawkers and give them license as well as regularization of eatery hangouts by the local body as well as the state government. He also demanded that space should be reserved for vendors in malls coming up in the city. "This was decided about a decade ago but there was no progress thereafter," he said adding that if the concerns of these segment are not addressed by the government then, they will have to carry out Civil Disobedience Movements in a Gandhian way even if government arrests them.
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