Footpath vendors raise voices against MCC

Footpath vendors raise voices against MCC

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, May 2: The footpath vendors of Mangalore organized a protest rally and hunger strike in front of the DC’s office on May 2, Monday against the MCC’s move of evacuating them from the footpaths.

 

 

In his protest speech, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Union Secretary Hamza N. A. said that daily wage workers have no assured income, adding that vegetable and fruit vendors who have been running their business from the footpaths for years cannot be evacuated. He urged the government to provide an alternative place for the evacuated footpath vendors.

Complaining that the government provides subsidies for all workers except street vendors, he said that the MCC spends a lot of money beautifying parks and demanded to know how many children will use the parks daily. He suggested that the MCC set up shops in areas where it intends to build parks and collect rent from vendors.

M. G. Hegde, the state secretary of JD(S), said that vendors ought to learn their living in these days of financial crisis and complained that the BJP government is busy introducing new rules and wrecking the lives of poor vendors. He also sarcastically commented that ever since the BJP came to power, separate laws exist for CM B. S. Yeddyurppa and his cronies.

M. Farooq Bengre, the former corporator, flagged off the rally at Central Market in the presence of Shashiraj, Janaab Ali Hasan, Ahmed Jamaal, and others.