Street vendors engage in heated arguments with Municipal Corporation eviction team

The Street Vendors Union affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) on Monday staged a protest against the eviction drive of the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) at Lakkar Bazaar in Shimla and demanded its immediate discontinuation. Hundreds of street vendors gathered at Lakkar Bazaar and raised slogans against the corporation. They also set up stalls and sold their goods at the site. During the protest, the vendors got into a heated exchange with corporation officials. Vijendra Mehra, state president of CITU, said, 'For years, thousands of families have been earning their livelihoods through street vending and the corporation is taking away their livelihoods. The crackdown over the past several weeks has caused financial hardship for the families of many street vendors. It is the corporation's responsibility to protect the livelihoods of the vendors,' he added. Mehra said that the market should be kept in the vending zone and stripping a poor family of its livelihood and leaving it on streets was not a solution under any circumstances. 'We demand that an alternative location should be provided to vendors where they can conduct their business smoothly and not in areas where there is very less footfall of customers,' he added. He said that the rights of the street vendors should be protected under the provisions of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. 'Street vendors have staged several protests against the corporation in the past few weeks and have demanded a solution to their issues through dialogue but still the corporation is continuing with its crackdown, showing its insensitivity towards the vendors,' he added. CITU warned the corporation of intensifying its struggle if the eviction drive was not stopped forthwith.