Obstruction of
traffic and pedestrians and causing hindrance to shops by roadside/pavement
vendors have become contentious issues in cities and towns all over the
country. In Chennai city also thousands of street vendors/hawkers have set up
roadside/pavement shops all over the city encroaching upon pavements and
roadsides with political patronage and connivance of corrupt officials. The
encroachment of roadsides and pavements by hawkers/vendors also cause
obstruction to the shop keepers leading to clash between regular shopkeepers
and hawkers. Sometimes road-side stall owners also fight over occupying a
space. In some cases they become law unto themselves with political patronage
and as a result regulation becomes difficult. In many cases, the local authorities
have removed the encroachments by hawkers. But after some days they return to
the same spot. Even intervention by the Courts has produced nil results. In the
busy business centre of Pondy Bazaar in T.Nagar, Chennai, hawkers had set up
business on roadsides and pavements causing obstruction to the shopkeepers,
besides causing traffic problems and inconvenience to the pedestrians. Pavement
on both sides of the entire stretch of Pondy Bazaar was occupied by hawkers
obstructing traffic, pedestrian movement, besides causing great inconvenience
to shopkeepers. The pedestrians invariably were edged out. The shops encroached
upon the space meant for pedestrians, thereby forcing them to use the
carriageway. Based on complaints from shopkeepers and pedestrians, the
corporation authorities removed the encroachments with police protection on
many times, but the hawkers used to return with redoubled vigour. Finally on
November 7, 2013, the Chennai Corporation implemented a Madras High Court order
and evicted 96 hawkers who have been on the road for decades. The traders were
forced to vacate the pavement and move into the three-storey shopping complex
built for their benefit by Chennai Corporation on Thyagaraya Road. The
complex was built for the hawkers in
March 2011 remained under lock and key
until recently, as hawkers were not
interested to move into the complex, built on a budget of about Rs 4.5
crore. The complex was designed to have 629 shops, including 100 on the ground
floor that were to be occupied by flower, vegetable and fruit vendors. The
buildings corridors are rather narrow but it has good lighting and toilets. But
there are no security guards or any system to lock the complex at night and
drunkards use the building as a shelter.
Actually a plan for
re-locating the hawkers came up in 2003, after a Madras High Court-appointed
Committee came out with its report. The building has provision for the 650-odd
hawkers identified by the Committee. The hawkers were unimpressed by the size
of the shops because each shop has an area of 5 x 5 feet as against the 10 x 10
feet demanded by the hawkers. According to the hawkers, here are no facilities
for them to store their wares and there is no guarantee that their things will
be safe at night. Recently, this commentator, made a study of the business
prospects of the resettled hawkers. The hawkers occupying shops in the second
and third floors were found to have not much business. Most of the shops
remained shutting even during peak hours. The general complaint of the hawkers
resettled in the complex is that customers patronage has declined considerably compared
to their pavement shops in Pondy Bazaar, where they were vending for more than
two decades. Most of the hawkers resettled in the complex said they were
planning to move elsewhere than suffer in doing business in the complex. Some
of them have already shut shop and moved elsewhere after their business took a
severe hit but the others remain clinging on with the hope that their customers
will follow them to the complex sometime soon.
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