BMP task force swoops down on Jayanagar 4th Block vendors

BMP task force swoops down on Jayanagar 4th Block vendors
Deccan Herald

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Task Force swooped down on hawkers and vendors around the passages and footpath, surrounding Jayanagar 4th Block Complex on Thursday at 6.30 pm. The task force personnel, in an operation that lasted more than two hours, also cleared shops encroaching on the passages in the complex.

More than 600 vendors and hawkers selling with vegetables, fruits, flowers, garments, footware, household products and other goods tried to resist the BMP personnel but police bandobast was tight around the area.

Some fruit vendors said that they have been doing business for more than three decades here and had valid licences issued by the BMP in 2000. Loans were taken from the local branch of Canara Bank, they said.

The BMP had not given them any notice, complained the affected people. But BMP officers said that public announcements were made in the area for the last three days.

Even the Janatha Bazaar had jutted on the road, sighed a BMP official. The hawkers and vendors were all doing unauthorised business, they were obstructing the passage ways meant for loading and unloading of goods by the traders in the complex, said BMP Chief Engineer Rame Gowda who was on site during the operation. The shop owners association of the complex have themselves filed a complaint before the Legislature Petition Committee, he said.

Shop owners objected to clearance of their shop fronts protruding on to the passage ways within the complex. Venting their ire, they noted that the BMP has till date not acted on their petition to clear the fresh fish stalls (four in number) that are within the complex on the first floor. Sought his response, Mr Rame Gowda said that it has been decided to put up a floor above the toilet block of the complex and relocate the fish stalls over there. It will keep the fish stalls independent of the other shops in the complex, he said.

250 BMP task force personnel approached the complex from its four different sides giving little time for the vendors and shopkeepers to put a resistance. Two excavators and 10 lorries were used to clear and cart the debris.