The street vendors had just begun regaining their livelihoods in the pandemic when they were hit by this eviction drive.
It was a sudden whim of the Rajkot Mayor Pradip Dav on November 9 last year that spurred a drive to uproot all roadside stalls selling eggs and non-veg food. At first it appeared to be one mayor바카라s idea but within 48 hours, four other municipal corporations바카라Vadodara, Bhavnagar, Junagadh and Ahmedabad바카라too launched a similar drive. And since not a single directive was on paper바카라all passed verbally바카라the municipal commissioners simply feigned ignorance.
The original reason was that the sight of non-veg food displayed at the stalls hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus. The same about eggs at the stalls. It is well known in Gujarat that most omelette stalls, which sell the unique dish called 바카라Ghotalo바카라 (confused mix), are mostly located in Hindu areas since most of Ahmedabad is ghettoised. 바카라Ghotalo바카라 is an out-of-the-world mix of scrambled eggs, egg keema and a peppering of half-fry egg. This, among several weird combinations like egg dosa, are a favourite among vegetarian Gujaratis. Many don바카라t cook eggs at home but savour them on the streets. You may even get Jain omelette and Jain pav bhaji which doesn바카라t contain onion, garlic and potatoes.
As the controversy refused to fade out, two more reasons were added: That the smoke and smell emanating from these non-veg food kiosks were a health hazard and that they create traffic snarls by encroaching on the roads. So, for the sake of creating a semblance of balance, the mayors and Gujarat바카라s law minister and former speaker Rajendra Trivedi, also a prominent lawyer of Vadodara who had supported the move, stated in unison that the decision was applicable for all roadside vendors who are encroachers.
Finally, the state government바카라which had remained completely silent all through the controversy바카라spoke. The first reaction came from Gujarat BJP president C.R. Patil, 바카라We are not targeting anybody for selling eggs or non-veg food. It is the people바카라s choice. The municipal corporations have been told this. They may have removed some street vendors바카라 stalls for encroachment, but not for what they sell.바카라 And then came chief minister바카라s Bhupendra Patel바카라s delayed response when he said at a public function in Anand that, 바카라The government could not have any objections to people바카라s food choices and people should ensure that they ate hygienic food, veg or non-veg can바카라t be an issue.바카라 But he added for good measure that if such eateries were an encroachment and creating traffic issues, the municipal corporations could in their wisdom remove them.
The BJP in Gujarat may have defused this controversy for now but it has a wider national ramification 바카라 the issue of livelihood of street vendors was never restricted to a few cities of Gujarat and is widespread.
There are an estimated 15 lakh street vendors in Gujarat with the maximum in Surat, 1.5 lakh, and around 1.25 lakh in Ahmedabad.
The municipal corporations, whose new bodies were elected in February 2021, launched this drive without any advance notice or warning. The street vendors had just begun regaining their livelihoods after the devastation caused by the Covid-19 crisis and the extended phases of lockdown, when they were hit by this eviction drive.
Union leaders of street vendors say that a staggering 50,000 of them shut shop out of fear as removal cranes arrived to demolish other shops.
바카라Veg or non-veg comes later,바카라 said Vadodara-based environmentalist and human rights activist Rohit Prajapati. 바카라The point is, under which legal provision did they take this action? None. The Supreme Court바카라s directives and the Street Vendors Act, 2014, are very clear. This can바카라t be done without providing them with alternative arrangements.바카라
The eviction drive may have been temporarily halted. But the vendors are fighting back. On November 25, they moved a petition in the Gujarat High Court against the seizure of their handcarts by the municipal corporations. The petition pointed out that 바카라thousands of handcarts were confiscated without any rhyme or reason throughout the state and no due process was followed바카라. They have still not got many of them back.
The petition also cited the larger issue of the non-implementation of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, in Gujarat.
The petition argued, 바카라Selling non-vegetarian food on the streets does not impinge upon anybody바카라s rights. A vegetarian might find consumption of non-vegetarian food offensive whereas a vegan might find consumption of milk, cheese and honey as offensive. As long as a person doesn바카라t violate any law, he/she must be free to sell anything under the right to livelihood guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.바카라
Under the Act, a 19-member Town Vending Committee has to be constituted by all municipal corporations with fair representation of vendors. This committee is required to conduct a survey and identify hawking and no-hawking zones. Such a survey is being launched in Delhi, for instance, but nothing has moved in Ahmedabad or in any other major cities in Gujarat.
Rakesh Maheria, president of the Laari-Galla Patharna (street vendors) Sangh Gujarat also pointed out that 바카라the Supreme Court had in 2009 ordered that no street vendors could be removed in the name of encroachments without providing them concrete alternative arrangements. But the municipal authorities just ignore this바카라.
He said town vending committees constituted by municipal corporations in Gujarat exist only on paper. 바카라Where are the surveys and where are the hawking zones with all facilities?바카라 asked Rakesh.
바카라The main reason Gujarat바카라s civic bodies are not earmarking land parcels to create hawking zones is that many such spaces are in commercially prime areas dominated by Hindus,바카라 he asserted.
This is despite a central order of May 18th last year from the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to chief secretaries of all states, asking them to provide vending certificates to all street vendors and not harass them. 바카라Only 42,000 out of the 1.25 lakh hawkers in Ahmedabad have been given these certificates so far,바카라 said Rakesh. 바카라And in the case of non-veg food vendors, only 4 per cent out of an estimated 4,000 of them have such certificates.바카라
Unconcerned about the heat and dust raised by the eviction drive, the state바카라s vegetarian-at-home and all-eatarians outside, young Gujaratis continue to gorge on chicken at the Magic Chicken Dhaba at Gujarat바카라s largest Muslim ghetto, Juhapura.
(The writer is Editor, Development News Network [DNN], Gujarat)