Street vendors have accused the government of trying to wipe them out on the pretext of relocating their business by lingering the whole process. They have warned of protests if the government continued dillydallying on the decision to move them to areas agreeable to them. 

On May 7, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) had formed a new task force, including the representatives of the street vendors, to identify new places for relocating the hawkers. The new task force was supposed to finalize the alternative areas within a week. Though a month has elapsed since the task force was formed, the government has not been able to finalize the alternative areas for relocating the displaced hawkers. 

“The government is in no mood to relocate us because it wants to obliterate us. It is the reason why they are in no hurry,” accused Maya Gurung, general secretary of the Self-employed Trade Workers Association. Representatives of the ministry and the local bodies, including the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, had asked the agitating street vendors to come up with the number of street vendors in the capital. 

“On the basis of that data, the ministry was supposed to identify the areas for us. However, nothing has happened,” said she. She said there are over 5,000 street vendors in the capital. 

The representatives of the government bodies have met several times to finalize the areas, but to no avail. “Whenever we ask them to fix the areas where we can run our business, they say they are holding talks,” said Naresh Neupane, a council member of Self-Employed Business Workers Association (SBWA). 

Currently, street vendors have been facing tough time hawking their goods due to frequent clampdowns against them by the city police. However, Dhanapati Sapkota, chief of the implementation department of the KMC, said the task force has not been able to determine proper location for the street vendors as the government is yet to finalize the venues for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation conference. 

“It is likely that the closing ceremony of the SAARC meeting will be held in the City Hall on the Exhibition Road. It is one of the areas demanded by the street vendors for hawking goods. That´s why it is taking time to take a decision,” said Sapkota, who is also a representative in the new task force.

Published on: 9 June 2014 | Republica