HYDERABAD: For a city that has only 350 km of footpaths as against the 9,099.24 km of roads, street-hawkers are nothing less than a menace. Moreover, no official of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has an estimate of the footpath that has been encroached upon.
Lack of footpaths aided with vendors encroaching upon walking spaces have spelt trouble for commuters. “I don’t care anymore. I have got so used to stepping onto the road to avoid the vendors that it doesn’t matter to me now,” said Ashish M, a hotel management student from Barkathpura.
In fact, in 2014 a written Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed against the GHMC in the High Court regarding footpath encroachments. The court had then directed the GHMC to take necessary action.
Civic body’s response
The GHMC later filed a report before the High Court saying they had, together with traffic police, removed 17,988 encroachments on footpaths. The report also mentioned that 2,847 temporary encroachments were removed by the civic body between April 14 and Oct 6 in the same year. The case was closed in 2015 after GHMC gave HC assurance that it would continue removing encroachments.
However, despite several efforts being made by the authorities, vendors somehow manage to continue their small-time trade from either side of the roads. A majority of these are vendors whose livelihood comes from the street.
Meanwhile, GHMC commissioner B Janardhan Reddy doesn’t take sides. “Most of these vendors come from rural areas.
The rural to urban migration is heavy and it has become a social problem. We have to strike a balance between citizens, commuters and street vendors. I can’t take sides on this matter as there are livelihoods involved,” he said.
The city in recent times have also seen various state departments encroaching footpaths.
Apart from street vendors, various departments such as water authority and electricity board have also turned encroachers.