Jaipur: Following a TOI report on unauthorised street vendors dirtying and obstructing the Lal Kothi sabzi mandi, Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) Greater conducted a cleanliness drive on the road adjacent to the mandi late on Saturday. By Sunday morning, the streets remained blocked and littered with garbage, with street vendors obstructing the remaining parts of the road.A section of JMC Greater officials and citizens claimed that daily removal of garbage was not a solution to this problem. They stated that the govt and the civic bodies must ensure that street vendors, whose numbers are multiplying with each passing day, are not allowed to block the road.A senior JMC Greater official, who got transferred from the enforcement branch a few months back, disclosed that in the last three years, the number of street vendors on this street multiplied by at least three times. They now started occupying almost the entire stretch of the road up to the entrance gates of the Sarovar Premiere Hotel. This is because of these thelawalas the garbage vans can’t enter this road during day time, despite huge amount garbage piles up on this road since early morning. “This is ridiculous. This road connects the Sahakar Marg with the road where the Laxmi Mandir Tiraha underpass is constructed. After taking a huge amount from motorists as road tax, how can the govt keep an important road entirely inaccessible to the motorists?” the official added.On Sunday afternoon, when TOI visited the spot, the entire road was occupied by the street vendors, with the narrow verge between the Sabji Mandi and the road littered with piles of garbage.Deepak Singh Sekhawat, who works with a private firm adjacent to this road, said, “This is perhaps the only market in the country where the shops meant for selling vegetables are in dilapidated condition, and the road adjacent to the market has been blocked by vegetable vendors with their carts.”“A section of shopkeepers on the other side of the market and the thelawalas dump their garbage right there, taking advantage of these dilapidated shops. Buildings in the adjacent areas house several important offices, including the Debt Recovery Tribunal, two nationalised life insurance companies and banks, and two prominent media houses. It’s a shame for a city that is considered to be in the list of top 20 cleanliest cities in the country,” Sekhawat added.
