NEW DELHI: The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) has decided to take out a protest march against the union government on December 21. Apart from demanding to stop indiscriminate harassment and eviction of street vendors, the NASVI will demand for proper implementation of Street Vending Act – 2014 across the country.

Starting from the Delhi’s Ram LeelaMaidan, the protest of the vendors will head towards the Parliament, where the Act was passed in 2014. According to section 3 of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, “No street vendor shall be evicted or, as the case may be, relocated till the survey specified under sub-section (1) has been completed and the certificate of vending is issued to all street vendors.

“India is such a place where the bureaucrats have always been dominant over the poorer. And the street vendors are among the worst affected. But when we complain or put-forth our demand, they indulge in blame-game”, said the NASVI, National Coordinator, Arbind Singh.

“Despite several applications and efforts to meet Home Minister, Urban Development Minister or other concerned authorities, we are yet to any concrete result in this regard. We have also appealed the state vendors to join our protest so that we could strongly fight against the situation worsening day by day”, Singh added. In a view to make their protests more effective, the NASVI officials are also organizing meetings in several strategic locations to mobilize the street vendors.

“Important to say that vendors across the nation especially in Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati, Hyderabad and others are facing same situation. The union government is neither issuing any guideline for capacity building of the vendors nor is it trying to restrict the local authorities. As a consequence, the actual motive of the Street Vending Act is completely missing from the ground”, said Singh.