BENGALURU: The Street Vendors’ Union, comprising civil society activists, lawyers and others, expressed concern over Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister DK Shivakumar’s statement that vendors hawking near walls and old buildings would be moved, citing safety.
Clifton Razorio, an advocate, said that instead of checking the quality of walls, exposing alleged corruption in construction and maintenance and holding those responsible, the DCM is going after helpless vendors by asking officials to move vendors hawking near walls, which is nothing but an “economic death sentence” for them.
The DCM’s statements come in the backdrop of seven deaths after a compound wall of Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Bowring and Lady Curzon) hospital collapsed on April 29. Following the DCM’s direction, GBA Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao also ordered the identification of old, dilapidated and dangerous compound walls and buildings.
The union also wrote a letter to the CM, urging the authorities to hold consultative meetings with vendors and provide them alternatives before taking the drastic step of evicting them.”The Street Vendors (Protection Of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vendors) Act was brought by the Congress, and the DCM must be aware that his words do not align with the Congress party’s ideology,” said Rozario.
Vinay Sreenivasa, an advocate for street vendors, said, “The maintenance of such walls is not the responsibility of street vendors. A dilapidated and dangerous wall is not the fault of vendors, hence their livelihood should not be targeted,” said Sreenivasa.
Survey of hospital buildings
The Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Department has directed officials across the state to identify old and dilapidated hospital and health centre buildings, raising the possibility of demolishing unsafe vacant structures.
In a circular issued on Tuesday, the department instructed District Health Officers (DHOs), Taluk Health Officers (THOs) and nodal officers to inspect buildings under their jurisdiction, including Sub Centres, Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs), Taluk Hospitals and District Hospitals.