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Delhi

2,000 street vendors protest at Civic Centre

New Delhi: Around 2,000 street vendors took to the street on Monday at the Civic Centre to protest against the atrocities of the Municipalities in Delhi. The vendors have been waiting to secure a meeting with the Municipal Authorities to discuss their issues with regard to the implementation of the Street Vendors Act, 2014.

The vendors are unhappy with the Town Vending Committees (TVC) which are barely functional and fail to carry out the duties such as conducting survey, issuing certificates of vending, demarcating vending and non-vending zones. The vendors demand that the Municipal Commissioner (MC) should give a written order to the DC (who is the chairman of TVC) that the vendors will not be removed and their goods will not be seized unless the survey and location are identified under Section 3(3) and without the decision of the TVC. They also demand that the TVC must settle the cases referred by the Delhi High Court of the aggrieved vendors within a month. The harassment by Municipal Inspectors should stop immediately.

A street vendor from Karol Bagh, Suni Kumar Mishra, said, "On September 27, law enforcement agencies came and took us to the police station and seized our products. After hours of harassment they let us go. How are we suppose to earn our bread when we are not allowed to sell our products. People like us depend on daily wages."

Legal Adviser to National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) Samridhi Uniyal said in a report, "After

protesting for hours, we were finally allowed to go in and speak to the South Delhi Municipal Commissioner, Gyanesh Bharti who gave some sort of assurance that they will discuss on the course to be

adopted from now on with respect to the street vendors in accordance with the provisions of the Act." The North Delhi Municipal Commissioner, Varsha Joshi, refused to engage with the protesting vendors. The aggrieved vendors will hold a demonstration again on November 13 if no prompt action is taken by the authorities.

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