Delhi Street Vendors Holds March For Livelihood and Against Eviction

STREET vendors held a “Livelihood March” against attempts to evict them from Mayur Vihar Phase-III in Delhi. Street vendors from Khoda Colony, Kalyanpuri, Mandavali, Lakshminagar and other parts of east Delhi participated in the March.

For the past several months, Delhi Police and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi have been evicting small street-side shops and vendors. At a time when the Modi Government has created and imposed the severest economic recession and the worst unemployment in 45 years on the people, Modi has been claiming that “selling pakoras” is employment. Yet, the Delhi Police controlled by the Home Ministry and MCD controlled by BJP, both are busy evicting street vendors who are somehow eking out a living in such hard times. Such eviction is contrary to the Street Vendors Act 2014 – since no ‘survey’ was conducted and no alternative spot offered to evicted vendors.

The March was led by CPIML’s Delhi State Secretary Comrade Ravi Rai, and State Committee member Comrade Shyamkishore Yadav, as well as by many street vendors.