Summary:
By Express News ServiceKOCHI: The Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown have added to the troubles of street vendors in the city. Already struggling to sell their goods due to the alleged challenges from officials, the vendors are now facing difficulty in making both ends meet.Raising their plight, the Ernakulam District Street Vendors Union (EDSVU) affiliated to CITU has demanded that the government implement the already-announced welfare scheme for the vendors with immediate effect. “Be it cooking our own food or paying monthly rent, vendors like us are struggling to find money. Though a welfare scheme is already announced, delay in its implementation is hitting beneficiaries hard,” said EDVSU president K K Sivan. The union members said vendors had bore the brunt of demonetisation, GST and back-to-back floods and it was high time they received assistance from the government..