Comrade Mahboob Alam, leader of the legislative group of the CPIML in Bihar Assembly, sat on a sit-in protest inside the DM office at Patna when he found the district magistrate absent from the office on 19 September. He went there with a group of footpath vendors of the city who are facing evictions and threats on their livelihoods.
The Patna administration has let loose its reign of terror on street vendors in the name of implementing various schemes and ‘clearing’ the city of encroachments without considering alternate locations for rehabilitation or any type of compensation for the street poor.
The street vendors approached the CPIML MLA at the latter's official residence and he immediately took them to the DM office for talks. Later, the Additional DM came at the spot and assured of quick action.
Mahboob Alam said that the Bihar government is not implementing the Street Vendors’ Act which was enacted in 2014. This is an utter violation of the rights of the vendors that the administration has not yet decided for the vending zones even as the state government had also enacted a similar law in 2017. The administration keeps illegally harassing the vendors evicting them without any proper notice. The attacks on the livelihoods of thousands in the name of Smart City and Beautification is unacceptable and illegal.
The police without prior notice destroys the vendors’ belongings. The vendors are being evicted or harassed at Bir Chand Patel Path, Station Road and many other places in the city.
He demanded to constitute proper vending zones as per the law and immediate stop on the evictions. He declared to hold a protest in Patna on the demand of proper registration of all street vendors and permanent vending zones.
