BENGALURU: Members of the Federation of Karnataka Street Vendors’ Associations have criticised the Greater Bengaluru Authority’s(GBA) Urban Development Department for errors in the ID cards issued to them.
Association president CE Rangaswamy said the ID cards issued to street vendors could not be used because of the errors. The matter was brought to the notice of the officials before the cards were issued. But the “negligence” on the part of the officials to rectify the errors has resulted in a situation where the vendors could not do business.
When the federation approached a local court some time ago, it directed the state government and GBA to rectify the errors within three weeks, he said. “The ID cards issued by the Bengaluru Central City Corporation have signatures of the issuing authority of the Bengaluru South City Corporation.
Vendors operating in the limits of other corporations face similar problems. Details of vendors’ family members and GPS codes are missing. The validity date has been mentioned as April 31 2028, whereas there are only 30 days in that month. The matter was deliberately not brought to the notice of Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who is also Bengaluru Development Minister,” Rangaswamy said.
Members of the federation said the officials had requested them not to take up the matter with Shivakumar. “We had asked GBA Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao and Additional Chief Secretary Tushar Girinath not to issue the ID cards with errors. But the officials ignored our pleas and distributed thousands of such ID cards,” Rangaswamy said.
He said new error-free ID cards should be issued to the vendors at the earliest.