Mangaluru: Several street vendors, who gathered under the banner of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Thursday held a demonstration in front of  the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) complex, in protest against MCC’s continuous drive to evict street vendors in the city.

Sunil Kumar Bajal, honorary president of the Street Vendors Association, Mangaluru said that the MCC has failed to implement Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2012. “The Bill proposes that street vendors   register themselves with a ‘Town Vending Committee’ to get legal sanction for their trade”, he said.

However, the MCC has not implemented the decision taken in the Town Vending Committee, despite holding at least four meetings in the last one and half year. “The street vendors are not given an alternative place to carry out their  trade. We are blamed for any accident in the city. The MCC is continuously evicting our trade items, which is our only source of livelihood”, he said.

Mr. Bajal also warned of a hunger strike, if the MCC continues displacing the street vendors and asked the commissioner to hold a meeting of street vendors and Town Vending Committee at the earliest.