Eviction drive: Vendors, others warn of protests

Bhubaneswar: A large number of street vendors and auto-rickshaw drivers here have threatened to stage a protest against the civic authorities for depriving them of their livelihood by evicting them from the roads.
Last week, the enforcement squads of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) have evicted more than 500 persons, including slum-dwellers and OMFED stall owners, from the city’s roads in order to beautify the state capital ahead of next month’s hockey World Cup.
The civic authorities have also issued notices to members of the transgender community, instructing them not to beg on the streets till the world cup is over. The squads have also asked the auto-rickshaw drivers not to park their vehicles by the roadsides or at designated parking places ‘since that will tarnish the beauty of the city’.
“This is a matter of our basic necessities. No city can sustain without the roadside vendors or auto-rickshaw drivers or the service providers like maids, carpenters, plumbers, sweepers, who stay in slums,” Padman Kumar Samal, the secretary of All Odisha Auto-rickshaw Mahasangha and convenor of Sangharsh - a united front of the affected people, said on Monday.
“These people have been earning a living on the city’s streets for years. Suddenly the officers started evicting them without giving any prior notice or rehabilitating them. Where will they go with their families in this cold weather,” Pratap Sahu, co-convenor of Sangharsh and national secretary of All India Roadside Vendors Association, said.
When asked, mayor Sulochana Das said, “Only those who have encroached upon footpaths or drains are being evicted. Those conducting business on the streets cannot be rehabilitated. There are certain norms and criteria for rehabilitation.”