Street vendors and supporting organizations raise voice against Civic Tiger

Street vendors and supporting organizations raise voice against Civic Tiger

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, June 15: The street vendors of Mangalore, supported by the Congress, the CPIM, the JDS, the SFI, the Autorickshaw Drivers’ Association, DYFI, and other associations, organized a 24-hour protest against the MCC’s move to evict street vendors, in front of the MCC office building today.

 

 

 

 

 

Delivering the inaugural address, Corporator Mariamma Thomas said that citizens must now struggle to get rid of the BJP government just as they once used to struggle to get rid of the British. She urged those in power not to forget that every individual born in this country are its citizens and not just RSS members. She said that the people in the city are facing a number of problems because they have given power to uneducated and corrupt politicians.

M. G. Hegde, the general secretary of Janatha Dal (Secular), said that every city has footpath vendors and demanded to know why they are being evicted only in Mangalore, especially when it has been proved that the small businesses run by footpath vendors has saved the country from economic crisis.

He also remarked that the name of the drive to evict street vendors should be changed from Civic Tiger to Civic Pig since wild pigs always eat up food meant for people. Although the MCC has promised to make alternative arrangements for street vendors, nobody knows when it will do so, he remarked.

Prof. Rita Noronha said that the law permits street vendors to sell the products in the natural market. She said that human rights are being violated and that street vendors have the right to protest against the violators.

Azeez Kudroli, P. V. Mohan, Lancelot Pinto, Yadav Shetty, CITU District General Secretary Vasanth Achary, Balakrishna Shetty, L. T. Suvarna, Muneer Katipalla, Ashraf, Shashidhar Hegde, and others also participated in the protest.