Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance con­trib­u­tor

Street ven­dors burnt tyres out­side the Ch­agua­nas Mar­ket yes­ter­day to protest a crack­down on il­le­gal vend­ing by the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice.

The protest start­ed around 1.30 pm, when po­lice of­fi­cers start­ed re­mov­ing the ven­dors from in front of the mar­ket. The road had to be closed for al­most an hour as po­lice and fire of­fi­cers cleared the de­bris left by the protest­ing ven­dors.

Speak­ing af­ter­wards, May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed warned that the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion would be on a con­stant pro­gramme to rid the streets of il­le­gal vend­ing and those re­spon­si­ble for yes­ter­day’s demon­stra­tion would face the brunt of the law.

Mo­hammed said le­git­i­mate mar­ket ven­dors had com­plained to him that the street ven­dors were un­fair­ly com­pet­ing against them. He added that there are more than 100 spaces in­side the mar­ket and the fee is just $5 a day to vend.

The may­or said the ven­dors op­er­at­ing il­le­gal­ly on the streets out­side the mar­ket can ap­ply for those spots.

The street ven­dors said they just want to earn a liv­ing with­out hav­ing to turn to a life of crime.