Delhi street vendors to move court against eviction

Street vendors in the capital plan to approach the Supreme Court against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) eviction drive targeted at illegal hawkers ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), an association of street vendors, which has over 300,000 members in 20 states, accused the MCD of evicting roadside hawkers without formulating a policy.

‘Instead of taking concrete steps to formulate a proper policy for urban street vendors or issuing licences to hawkers, they are evicting them from various city markets,’ Mukut Sarma, programme manager of NASVI told IANS.

As part of the MCD’s drive in west Delhi, around 150 vendors were evicted from Uttam Nagar bus terminal and 70 vendors were evicted from Janakpuri recently. Over 200 vendors who had put up stalls near the Delhi railway station were also evicted.

Vendors from west Delhi’s Manglapuri vegetable market, and those operating from close to east Delhi’s Jeevan Anmol Hospital and Mayur Vihar have also complained of harassment by police and seizure of goods, Sarma said.

‘We have no other option, except to knock the doors of the Supreme Court, as there is an urgent need to stop the atrocities against vendors and to find lasting solutions to their problems,’ Sarma added.

Arbind Singh, coordinator of NASVI, said: ‘NASVI had a series of interactions with the MCD (12 meetings between March 2009 and May 2010) on the issue of resettlement of street vendors in the capital but nothing worthwhile happened.’

‘All our efforts have gone in vain as the commissioner of MCD has stated that all vendors in the city will be evicted before the commencement of the Commonwealth Games’ Singh informed.

The vendors have been demanding that the civic authorities should specify vending and no-vending zones, legalize all the weekly markets, stop illegal evictions and stop imposition of fines.

NASVI members staged a protest at the MCD headquarters here June 1 accusing the civic agency of not formulating and implementing a proper policy for urban street hawkers.