Summary:
Harassment of street vendors and hawkers by officials has been going on in violation of the Street Vendors (Protection of livelihood and regulation of Street Vending Act) 2014. In the light of problems being faced by the street vendors, Telangana Street Vendors and Hawkers Union president S Venkata Mohan made a representation to the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretaries of MAUD and home departments on the issue. He told Express that local GHMC officials and traffic police were violating the Street Vendors Act 2014 and harassing the vendors, hawkers by evicting and relocating them and also imposing penalties. Further, as per the Street Vendors Act, no street vendor should be evicted or relocated till the completion of the survey of the existing vendors and issuance of Certificate of Vending (COV) to them. Venkat Mohan said that street vendors play a key role and form a big segment of unorganised sector..