Hawkers resist eviction drive at Luz Corner

Chennai: Chennai corporation officials faced stiff resistance from hawkers on Friday while clearing stalls from Luz Corner pavement. Ruling party members were also angry with the civic body for razing a structure carrying a plaque that commemorated Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa’s 66th birthday.

“This structure was not on the pavement but it was demolished. A banner with her photo was taken down too. There is a DMK banner across the road, ask them why it hasn’t been touched,” said an irate AIADMK member. An executive engineer (EE) from Chennai corporation said, “We are clearing the pavement from Luz Church Road to TTK Road. Hawkers can sell in temporary stalls, not permanent ones. The width of the pavement is to be increased. So we brought the structure down.”

But other residents claimed that only select stalls and hawkers were targeted.
“We have not been told to remove our stalls. Our union leader has been in talks with corporation officials, and all of us here have hawker permits,” said a vendor at one the stalls around Luz Corner.  “There are over 250 vendors around the Luz Corner,” another vendor said.

“The work has begun only today. It will take another three days to clear all permanent stalls and structures,” the EE said. He added that according to rules for vendors, only a space of 5 x 5 sq. feet and only temporary stalls are allowed.
“We had a bookstall for the past 70 years. We came this morning to talk co the Corporation officials, but by then they had already removed the roof from our stall,” sobbed A. Mary.

Another resident , S Narendran, said: “There are over 250 vendors on the road aligning with the Luz corner. They have not been asked to remove their stalls. Just because they have unions doesn’t mean no action is taken against them.”