Roadside vendors at Unit-II Market in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 28: The tussle between roadside vendors and permanent shop owners at Unit-II Market, the city’s oldest and one of the most important markets, continues with the municipal corporation failing to remove the unauthorised vendors.

On September 11 last year, the civic body had launched the drive to remove illegal vendors from the market building area. But, the vendors have stayed put.

The drive had followed an agitation by the permanent shop owners of the market. They had urged the civic body to allow only identified vendors to do business inside the shopping complex. There was also a plan to issue identity cards to authorised vendors, but nothing has materialised. The permanent shop owners, under the aegis of Central Market Association, had alleged that 543 vendors were present inside the market building.

They also said that while some vendors had documents to support their claims to continue their business, there were many others doing business illegally and inconveniencing people.

General secretary of the association Pradyumna Kumar Jena said: “There is a nexus between the civic officials and vendors, which is perhaps the reason why eviction of the illegal vendors has not been impossible. If no action is taken against them, we may go to court against the illegal vendors.”

Jena also said that with vendors choking the place, the entire market becomes congested in the evening and this puts off shoppers.

Jasaswini Mohapatra, a homemaker from Shatabdi Nagar (Phase-II), said: “There should be controlled entry of vendors inside the market.”

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said: “Eviction has not been possible since the last Durga Puja because of the model code of conduct for the Bhubaneswar and Cuttack civic polls. We will take up the matter again after the new council starts functioning.”

However, president of the All-Odisha Roadside Vendors’ Association Pratap Sahu blamed some of the permanent shop owners behind the failure of the corporation’s plan to remove illegal vendors.

“Apart from 246 vendors with valid permission, there are 54 more vendors who were given permission by a former municipal commissioner. So, there are 310 vendors who can actually sit inside. However, 233 more vendors are operating inside the market as most of them are sponsored by some of the permanent shop owners,” Sahu said.