A section of street and roadside vendors affiliated to the AITUC staged a demonstration here on Friday in support of their charter of demands urging the State government to protect their livelihood.
They appealed to the State government to allow street and roadside vendors to carry out their business in the same places where they had set shop before the lockdown was announced. The government should grant permission for this trade keeping in mind the severe hardships faced by street vendors in the wake of lockdown which had affected their livelihood.
The demonstrators also urged the State government to fully implement the Tamil Nadu Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood, Regulation of Street Vending) Rules, 2015 in all local areas and provide the street vendors with bio-metric identity cards and business certificates by fixing a time frame. They appealed to the State government not to destroy the livelihood of the street vendors under Smart City project and ensure that they were given bank loans without any conditions in order to protect them from private persons charging high rate of interest.
They urged the government not to remove those vendors doing business using push carts at Gandhi Market in the city citing vehicular movements. Creation of business committees by holding elections after ensuring that identity cards were issued to all vendors and immediate renewal of business certificates after completion of five years were among their other demands. The demonstration held near the Collectorate was led by Tiruchi district Street and Road Side Vendors Association president S. Siva. About 50 vendors participated in the demonstration that lasted about 30 minutes.