In a swift and focussed operation, civic officials cleaned up all the hawker stalls on South Mada Street, from the Chitrakulam – Gandhi statue end to Sangeetha restaurent end on July 22 morning.
Dozens of GCC staff and Urbaser Sumeet workers cleared all the hawker stalls which are mostly not operation in the mornings. But as word went around, hawkers challenged the workers and some women held on to their possessions and screamed no end.
Policemen and women were at hand to ensure there was no law and order problem. They were called in to handle people who refused to let the clean-up carry on.
This is the n-th time that such a cleanup has been executed. The hawkers returns to the spots in 24 hours and are strongly patronised by their local customers.
But there are Mylaporeans who demand that the hawkers be restricted to a space and not have stalls on this busy road.
Problem is not the South Mada Street. That street always had vegetable vendors. Instead of removing all of them, restrict them to specified spaces. In East Mada Street, the vendors are displaying their wares till the middle of the road disrupting vehicles.
Well, I doubt the hawkers on south mada street are really a problem. They have not even permanently encroached space by putting up bunk shops. That is something on north mada Street. If the bunk shops can be there on north mada Street I am not sure why the hawkers on south mada street should be a problem. The ones on south mada street and near the hanuman temple are selling essentials like vegetables and they used to sell in the erstwhile thaneer thurai market which has now become a flat complex. If government removes the space for sales of essential products then it has only itself to blame
Where is smart city on pondy bazzar… The vendors occupied the entire area… The shop owners are also extended their product display.. there is no regular check up by the GCC or the police to watch & warn them … We ve to blame the people to encourage them by buying products as well as the vendors throwing waste on the platform itself… No discipline adhered by both vendors & public…