Mangaluru: A resolution was adopted at an organisational convention at AKG Bhavan in Bolar Wednesday under the leadership of the Dakshina Kannada District Street Vendors Association (affiliated to CITU).The meeting was organised to protect the right to livelihood of street vendors and to protest against MCC’s ongoing drives, CITU district general secretary Sunil Kumar Bajal said. He said MCC officials must work within the framework of the Constitution.The association’s honorary president, BK Imthiyaz, questioned, “Using bulldozers against the poor is not the Karnataka model. Why is the state’s Congress govt maintaining silence even as inhumane raids are being conducted in Mangaluru without even sparing the differently-abled in the style of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi’s govt in Uttar Pradesh?”He alleged that corporation officials were behaving harshly toward the poor in the name of clearing footpaths, adding that if the corporation does not drop its stubborn attitude, intensifying the struggle will become inevitable.On the resolutions, Bajal said the union has demanded that MCC immediately stop all eviction drives at Sunday Bazaar and other locations until alternative arrangements are made for vendors.He said that in accordance with the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, a Town Vending Committee must be formed, a survey conducted, and ID cards and certificates issued to vendors.“If the corporation maintains its stubborn attitude and continues the raids, the protest will be intensified phase by phase,” he said.Bajal added that goods seized during the corporation’s operations must be documented on the same day as per regulations and returned to street vendors.
