Protest against eviction spills on to streets in Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: The discontent among street vendors against the ongoing eviction drive for Hockey World Cup 2023 spilled on to the streets in the state capital on Friday as thousands gheraoed the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s north zone office to lodge their protest.

The agitation that continued for hours prompted the civic body to suspend the exercise temporarily in the North Zone of the city. “The drive will resume after talks with the vendors’ association representatives,” said BMC North Zone assistant commissioner Suresh Chandra Lenka.

Association members said the BMC officials have assured them that a meeting will be convened by the BMC commissioner with the vendors’ representatives to decide the next course of action. The protesters under the banner of All Odisha Roadside Vendors’ Association, accused the civic body as well as Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) of conducting the eviction drive without any prior notice or arrangement for rehabilitation. The protest led to a minor scuffle between vendors and security personnel when the latter tried to prevent them from entering the zonal deputy commissioner (North) office at Samant Vihar.

“I used to sell eggs through a small kiosk in Patia to make ends meet. However, the enforcement squad razed the kiosk without any advance notice. I have a family of four to feed. What will I do now?” rued one of the agitators at the protest site. The street vendors alleged the city beautification work for the World Cup is being carried out without any planning and rehabilitation measures for them.

“The arbitrary move that violates the law has put livelihood of thousands of poor street vendors and small traders at stake,” alleged association president Pratap Kumar Sahu.  Over 30,000 poor people earn their livelihood from street vending on city roads. “We will take it to social media tagging embassies of all countries to highlight how the World Cup has left thousands of roadside vendors in misery,”he said.