Gandhi Bazaar street vendors await action

BANGALORE: Since eight days, street vendors on Gandhi Bazaar main road footpath have been protesting against Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for removing their shops from the footpath.  It can be recalled that on last Monday midnight (January 23, 2012), BBMP authorities had demolished the bustling market.  Lakshmi, one of the vendor said that they have been sitting on dharana for the past one week. “We have approached many former chief ministers, including H D Kumaraswamy, B S Yeddyurappa and former prime minister H D Devegowda. But in vain. Every politician assures us, but we are not given any place to sit. If we sit here to carry on with our business, immediately a policeman tells us to get a letter from BBMP. But BBMP officials are least bothered to visit the place,” she said. Commissioner M K Shankarlinge Gowda had earlier said that the BBMP will not shift the vendors outside Gandhi Bazaar.  There is a BBMP market on the main road, but the space is not being used. “We are telling them to move to the market space. It is just reallocation,” he said.