
BHUBANESWAR : Street vendors of the capital city on Monday staged a demonstration here protesting the eviction drive without offering them alternative spaces to set up their business.
The vendors organised a protest march, on National Vendors Day, from Rajmahal square to Unit-I market and submitted a seven-point charter of demands before the government.
While demanding that those displaced during events like Hockey World Cup and Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conclave be prioritised for rehabilitation at the earliest, they called for standardisation of shops allocated in the vending zones to ensure adequate space for business.
Their demands also included improving the working conditions of street vendors, allotment of one-third of footpath space for vending zone and provisioning of all facilities as mandated by the Street Vendors Act.
Leaders who joined the protest emphasised the need for establishment of a welfare board for street vendors, a standard operating procedure for vendor development and issuing identity cards to them. They also called for allocation of permanent spaces for vendors and creation of additional vending zones in the city.
All Odisha Roadside Vendors’ Association president Pratap Kumar Sahu said the state government must ensure basic facilities such as drinking water, electricity, parking, and toilets in vending zones. He also sought standardised shop sizes, having a dimension of at least 10x8 ft or 8x8 ft, to ensure adequate space for business. “The government should establish at least two vending zones in each ward for quick rehabilitation of the evicted vendors,” Sahu said.