Drive becomes issue between Cong, BJP

SURAT, Feb 10: A joint drive by the Surat Municipal Corporation SMC and the city police against vegetable vendors, initiated more than ...

SURAT, Feb 10: A joint drive by the Surat Municipal Corporation SMC and the city police against vegetable vendors, initiated more than a month ago and sustained till date, has become an issue between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

While the city Congress has taken up the issue full throttle, criticising the ruling BJP in the SMC and the police 8220;for depriving thousands of vegetable vendors of their only means of livelihood,8221; BJP city leaders say the Congress cannot take a stand that grave injustice was being meted out to the vendors and larri-walas as there was an SC directive on hawking and no hawking zones in the walled parts of the city.

The Congress is more vociferous on the issue, while the BJP has taken a defensive stand on the issue, primarily because both see the displaced vegetable vendors and those residing in and around Bhagal Char Rasta area as vote banks.

The police, meanwhile, have ensured that the vendors stay away from the Bhagal main road and other lanes, from where they were evacuated on December 30 last year.

Leader of the ruling BJP in the SMC Natu Soma Patel, while stating that the issue would be sorted out in a couple of days, alleged that the Congress was exploiting a step taken for the general good. 8220;Although we do feel that vendors should not be inconvenienced, it is wrong for the Congress to say that they are starving to death8221;.

He said an alternative space has to be provided to them, preferably somewhere close from where they were removed. Former mayor Gita Desai and Deputy Mayor Snehelata Chauhan are said to have met the police commissioner in the regard.

On the other related issue that the Congress has taken up 8212; that of larris against whom the SMC and police have launched a drive 8212; Patel said that it was ridiculous for the city Congress to oppose it as there was a Supreme Court verdict on the issue. 8220;There are well-demarcated hawking and no hawking zones, specifically in the Central Zone walled city, which require implementation,8221; he added.

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City Congress president Thakore Naik, who has led a couple of rallies to the commissionerate in the past week alone, said that although it was not right for vendors to occupy the main road and spaces opposite shops in the area, the SMC was doing practically nothing to make alternative arrangements. 8220;Just because the Congress has taken a stand, the BJP is opposing it. However, they will have to find a solution to this issue soon,8221; he said. There have been four Congress-sponsored dharnas outside the SMC and another two outside the commissionerate on the issue so far.

Incidentally, the vendors 8212; who have been occupying the main road and lanes around Bhagal for decades now 8212; were removed twice; once in 1980 and again in 1985. However, on both occasions, they managed to regain the space after protests. Besides the main Bhagal Road, vendors occupy space in the Ruwala Tekra, Dukkad Pole, Ubhi Sheri, Masjidiya Sheri and Rani Talav; all around the Bhagal junction.