HYDERABAD: It has been seven years since the Street Vendors Act (Protection of Livelihood) came into force, but the vendors in the city say that they are still awaiting the complete implementation of the Act.
Speaking to this newspaper, K Naipal Reddy, who runs a tiffin cart in LB Nagar said, “There has been no town-vending committee. Even if the officials conduct a meeting, we are only told where we should put the waste. There is no communication amongst the line departments. The police come and harass us. They give no regard to the fact that we have been given an ID card by the GHMC. The police throw the card away and say that they do not have any knowledge of the town vending committee.”
There has been no end to harassment from various persons for street vendors. They rue that they have only been issued an ID card by the GHMC and not a street-vending certificate.
“Without the certificate, there is no way of establishing ourselves as street vendors. Every fortnight the police come to our cart and harass us. They usually ask things like, who gave you permission to sell here?” said Venkat Mohan, president, Telangana Street Vendors and Hawkers’ Union.
For those at the Secunderabad station road, vendors like James John said there was supposed to be a committee meeting with the GHMC commissioner. “There is no protection of the street-vendors. We have faced heavy loss due to the lockdown. We are still living under the fear of cops who can come and vacate us at a moment’s notice. Even the ID cards given to us are of no use,” he said.
Some even said that there had been instances when people would walk up to them posing as officials of the state government, and ask them for money. “There have been instances when people would walk up to us, posing as police or any other official and ask us to move our carts,” said Venkat Mohan.
