Mangalore: A CITU-led roadside vendors’ procession on foot was taken out on Saturday morning, from DCO gates on the streets of the city to stall the injurious activities of ‘Tiger’ van (MCC), to clear the footpaths forcibly and to facilitate pedestrian movements in the city.
This action was part of the CITU agitation against MCC (its administrators) which did not make alternate arrangements for roadside vendors while removing their sales materials from footpaths and has followed the Dharni Satyagraha earlier held on Thursday (May 19) morning, at Lalbhagh in front of MCC premises, as the first step of agitation.
Addressing the “walk on foot” by vendors in a gathering, CITU leader Sunil Kumar Bajal argued that many poor working-class people gave needy education to their children, and had enabled marriageable girls in the family to be married off by working roadsides. The Tiger operations by MCC amount to atrocities against working people, whose votes are sought by local scheming politicians.
Several roadside families and their trades have been ruined by the MCC in its swift actions, Bajal pointed out.
Such daily harmful activities by some MCC officials should be stopped forthwith. Whatever losses were incurred by roadside vendors so far, should be reimbursed to thm, he demanded.
Vasanth Achary (CPI-M), BM Hasan, Mohd. Mushrafa, Ataullah Kudroli, and over 100 vendors participated in the “walk to MCC” (Padayatra).