Mangaluru: Two persons have been booked for allegedly obstructing civic officials and staff during an anti-encroachment drive near Town Hall in Mangaluru.According to a complaint filed by Bharathi, she, her colleague Deepika Shalini D’Souza and other Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) staff were clearing unauthorised vendors from the footpath near Town Hall on Sunday. The drive was conducted following directions from the Supreme Court and instructions from the MCC commissioner, the complaint stated.During the drive, the accused, identified as Imtiyaz and Shantha, allegedly instigated others, climbed onto a vehicle deployed for the operation and attempted to assault sanitation workers. They were also accused of preventing Bharathi and D’Souza from discharging their official duties, verbally abusing them and assaulting them.A case has been registered at the Mangaluru South police station.Reacting to the case filed, BK Imtiyaz of the Dakshina Kannada District Street Vendors Association (CITU) said for the past six weeks, poor Sunday Bazaar vendors, who have been doing business outside Town Hall for several years, have faced eviction drives in the name of clearing footpath encroachments. A 16-foot-wide footpath may not exist even in any of the country’s metropolitan cities. It is unclear how such a wide space can be called a pedestrian pathway. At the instigation of certain people, the Mangaluru City Corporation has been taking action against vendors who use just four feet of this unusually wide footpath to conduct a weekly market on one day of the week, he alleged.Further, he alleged that corporation officials did not invite any media organisation to cover the operation. Instead, they brought in representatives of a YouTube channel that has allegedly been publishing defamatory reports against a particular group of Mangaluru street vendors for the past two months. He stated that a woman street vendor did not attempt to assault the officials.Weekly markets are not held only near Town Hall. They are also held in Surathkal, Bikarnakatte and Baikampady, with vendors operating along roadsides. Traders from other districts also visit these markets to sell vegetables, he added.
