Negligence of Officials
BENGALURU
The street vendors under Karnataka Pragathipara Beedi Vyaparigala Sangha alleged that the ID cards had already been printed and should have been issued within three months of the survey.
Street vendors in Bengaluru have raised concerns over non-issuance of ID cards despite a BBMP survey conducted last year, citing harassment and illegal fines.
A section of street vendors in Bengaluru under Karnataka Pragathipara Beedi Vyaparigala Sangha has raised a slew of issues, including the non-disbursal of identity cards despite Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) conducting a survey last year under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act.
The street vendors, while addressing a press conference, alleged that the identity cards had already been printed, and according to regulations, they should have been issued within three months of the survey.
Advocate and union office-bearer Vinay Sreenivasan said, “The survey was completed a year ago. After the new corporations were formed, we have given multiple memorandums…..Without the new ID cards in some places, the police harass vendors, asking them where their ID card is.”
Among the other issues flagged by the union are alleged harassment by the police after the recent reorganisation of BBMP into five separate bodies, non-dumping of silt from drains on roadsides, and levying “illegal” fines on vendors at Jayanagar and Church Street.
The union has warned of protests if the state does not meet certain demands. It alleged that street vendors were being targeted despite a court protection order against evicting them in Vijayanagar, pointing to incidents where drain silt was left on the roadside for several months, only being cleared in the wake of media attention.
In another incident, the police evicted several vendors from Munireddypalya market.
The union called for the formation of fresh town vending committees in each new municipal zone of Bengaluru, which is authorised to implement the Street Vendors Act. The vendors said that fresh committees have not been constituted after the expiry of the previous elected committee in 2020.
