VIJAYAWADA: Municipal Commissioner Natarajan Gulzar on Tuesday said action would be taken against petty traders who were doing business by setting up kiosks on the city roads and obstructing free flow of traffic.

During his visit to Vambay Colony, local people told him that several kiosks on the roads were hindering free flow of traffic.

Responding to their suggestion that the kiosk traders could be shown some alternatives, Mr. Gulzar elicited details from officials about how many traders were doing business in such a manner and for how long.

Token amount

The Commissioner agreed to provide space to only those kiosk-owners who were doing business for long, in the open space owned by the corporation next to a drain. The traders would have to pay a token amount as fee for continuing their business in the place, he said.

Mr. Gulzar also inspected the kiosks on the roads of Payakapuram and NSC Bose Nagar, and suggested traders meet officials in the corporation with a list of names of those who required an alternative site.

As local people drew his attention to the unhygienic conditions and poor sanitation on account of sale of chicken in the kiosks, the Commissioner assured them that alternatives would be considered.

But the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC)'s drive against hawkers has drawn criticism from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) corporator Donepudi Kashinath, who is also a representative of the city hawkers association.

Mr. Kashinath said his party was not opposed to the implementation of the Supreme Court's direction in respect of regulating the movement of hawkers and resettling them in all urban areas in the country, based on which a G.O. was issued by the State Government.

But the VMC officials were `misinterpreting' the SC ruling and the G.O. by earmarking the red and green zones improperly. The officials were trying to regulate the movement of pushcarts on the ground that they were mobile carts and could not be halted at any particular place for too long, Mr. Kashinath said.

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