VISAKHAPATNAM: Former Union energy secretary EAS Sarma has urged the State government to stop the eviction of street vendors in Vizag, in the name of presenting a ‘palatable’ sight of the city to G20 delegates. In a letter to Chief Secretary KS Jawahar Reddy on Wednesday, he said the government seems to be more anxious to please the G20 dignitaries than owning its past failure to recognise the vendors’ right to livelihood under Article 21 of the Constitution and their right to be recognised as essential contributors to the society’s needs under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 (Vendors’ Protection Act).
The successive governments and the political leaders seem to be more interested in accommodating private corporate honchos than being sensitive to the problems of residents of slums and street vendors, without whose services the city cannot run. Everytime a VIP visits the city, whether it is the Governor, or the Prime Minister, or a team of foreign delegates such as those attending G20 meet, the GVMC’s axe first falls on the street vendors, as they are considered an ‘ugly’ sight, who symbolise the failure of the GVMC in implementing the Vendors Protection Act effectively, he observed.
He said it is unfortunate that the GVMC expected to represent the pulse of the ordinary citizens of the city, has no time for fulfilling its democratic obligations. The GVMC, bound by the Vendors Protection Act, ought to have created a vendors’ zone in each ward and provided them common facilities to enable them lead lives with dignity. However, the GVMC, busy with dancing attendance on VIPs, has no time for fulfilling such a ‘mundane’ obligation.
Most vendors belong to the disadvantaged sections of society and those committing human rights violations on them and those that tacitly abet such violations, are liable to be prosecuted under the relevant prevention of atrocities laws. Had the PMO or the External Affairs Minister been apprised of this, he was sure that they would be the first to have dissuaded the State authorities from evicting the vendors, Sarma said. He said he was sending copies of the letter to the Union Minister for External Affairs and the G20 Secretariat and also the State Human Rights Commission for their intervention.
TDP stages dharna
TDP activists staged a dharna at the Gandhi statue near the GVMC office in the city on Wednesday, demanding the withdrawal of the move to evict street vendors and pushcart vendors for the G20 summit. The TDP demanded that a special zone be created in the city for the benefit of vendors.