During the construction of Ranchi-Vijayawada corridor passing through Rayagada in the year 2011, scores of street vendors were evicted to give way to widen the road.
The then district Collector NB Jawale had assured the evictees of suitable rehabilitation by constructing new vending zones. Unfortunately, till now, no such arrangements have been made.
Dr Jawale has been transferred and new Collector SB Padhi has taken over. The vendors en masse had several times approached both the Collectors to give them a space to transact their business, but in vain.
They are left in the lurch and the district administration is not least bothered about the evictees who did a sacrifice for the Rayagada denizens.
When a senior bureaucrat gets a new assignment, he behaves in such a way that he is noticed by the general public for self-projection. This has exactly happened in case of KS Subramani, who has recently joined as SP of Rayagada. He was appreciated when he took steps to make the traffic lights function, check papers of vehicles and remove unwanted parking in public places, etc.
He made a surprise visit to the jail and found illicit use of gutkha, cigar, tobacco, etc used by the prisoners along with other inmates and warned the jail authorities of stern action.
With his strict instruction, the vegetable vendors encroaching on the road near the over bridge, PWD bungalow and judge quarters, etc were driven out.
He tried to mitigate the issues which his predecessor Rajesh Pandit either overlooked or avoided due to the local pressure tactics, said Ajay Rath, a local youth leader.
While greater traffic issues like regularising the functioning of traffic lighting systems, curbing sale of illicit liquor in the vicinity of Rayagada town, fixing GPRS system to the PCR vans for keen monitoring, engaging trained traffic personnel at various places instead of home guards, strengthening the night patrol, taking action against the wine shops virtually acting like bars, dispersing the unruly public jamming roads in Kasturi Nagar, College Chowk, RK Nagar, Jyoti Mahal Chowk, FCI Godown Chowk, etc, the police have started harassing the vendors who have genuine licence from Rayagada Municipality by paying daily market fees and annual licence fees. Gowriamma, a petty roadside fish vendor, who showcases her business near District Agriculture Office, burst into tears while showing her fish box with rotting fish.
“I have been in this business since last fifteen to twenty years. I sincerely pay annual licence fees and daily market fees to the municipality. I acquire a very little space near one corner of the boundary of the agriculture office, clean the filth everyday and create no disturbance to anybody. I have never encroached on any road while doing business. The municipal authorities know this and have collected thousands of rupees from me since I started business. We have, time and again, approached the district administration to provide us place to continue our livelihood. Unfortunately for last few days, the police have been forcing me to pack up in spite of my appeal to consider that I am a licencee. I have six daughters who depend upon me from this paltry income. Because of torture from police, I could not dispose of the fish which rotted leading to mammoth loss for a poor woman like me,” she said.
“The district administration in connivance with the land mafia of the area is in neck dip corruption. It is unfortunate that the babus are not at all sensitive to the need of the poor like the licenced street vendors. It is high time they performed their basic duty for the welfare of these vendors by providing planned space as earlier assured. For the vendors who are paying the required tax, the municipality has a greater role to play. The police under the leadership of new SP must sustain in taking up pro-people actions and distance them from the vested interests,” said Kedar Panda, senior advocate of Rayagada Bar.
