Safe Footpath Campaign runs into conflict with street vendors in Bengaluru
Raju K.M., who has been selling earrings, hair clips and other accessories for the past 15 years at Malleshwaram 8th Cross, was one of those
Raju K.M., who has been selling earrings, hair clips and other accessories for the past 15 years at Malleshwaram 8th Cross, was one of those evicted during the ongoing ‘Safe Footpath Campaign’ in Bengaluru last week. “They call us encroachers now. We had to fight to prevent officers from seizing our wares, as that would have led to huge losses for us. We are now doing business on some small inner roads, scared like thieves,” he said. The ongoing campaign, while being welcomed by many for clearing the various encroachments hindering the right of way for pedestrians, has run into conflict with street vendors. Hundreds of street vendors have been evicted and the wares they were hawking seized, as part of the drive in the past one week. However, such eviction drives have been met with stiff resistance in several areas like Vijayanagar, Kengeri, R.R. Nagar, N.R. Colony, and so on. S. Babu, a street vendor at Vijaynagar since 1999 and also the president of Karnataka Pragatipara Beedi Vyaparigala Sangha, said civic officials tried to evict street vendors in Vijayanagar, including him, for two days, but had to beat a hasty retreat due to protests.
“I have an ID card under the old survey. I am registered under the new survey for which they are yet to give us ID cards. Still, they call us encroachers and have been trying to evict us,” he rued. No vending zones Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda announced that “at least 1,500 km of arterial and subarterial roads, around 10% of the city’s road network, will be declared as no vending zones” and defended the drive, arguing that street vendors were only being asked to relocate to inner roads. However, this has not gone down well with the vendors, who have been flagging violations of The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, a law brought in by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. ‘Four violations’ The street vendors’ unions have flagged four violations. “As per the law, no street vendor can be evicted till a survey is completed and they are given ID cards. The 2024 survey registered only 34,000 street vendors, even as over 80,000 street vendors have taken loans meant for vendors under the PM SVANidhi scheme.
The survey has deliberately undercounted vendors in the city,” said Mr. Babu. The Street Vendors’ Joint Action Committee points out that only Town Vending Committees, formed under the 2014 law, that includes street vendor representatives, can declare no vending zones. “The term of the few town vending committees that were formed expired in 2023 and no new committee has been formed yet under the new corporations. How can the Minister unilaterally declare no vending zones?” the unions asked. They also pointed out that no notices were served before being evicted and the officials have not given in writing details of the goods seized. Street vendors vs pedestrians Sneha Nandihal, of ‘I Change Indiranagar’, said they have been fighting encroachment of footpaths, including by street vendors, for several years now. “In Indiranagar, we once found a man working at an IT major running a petty shop as a side hustle. Local politicians rent out footpath space like it is their property. This idea of street vendors all being poor is not true and it is being misused. People had stopped walking on the footpaths as they were occupied. We have got some of them cleared.
The BriefWire