An open letter to PM Modi on his ‘pakoda' statement
Mr. Prime Minister,
In a TV interview recently, you asserted that a person is earning Rs. 200 a day selling pakodas is also an employed person. Many people took offense to this statement, claiming that your promise to generate one crore jobs is a hoax.
While we appreciate the fact that you recognize street vending as employment, the harsh realities under which street vendors carry out their livelihood has been lost in your statement. Street vending is an independent and dignified profession. We are proud to be street
vendors.
However, we cannot take away the context in which we have become street vendors. It is out of distress of migrating to a city, of drought in villages, agricultural crisis reeling in this country, and more importantly lack of employment options that we have resorted to treet vending.
Moreover, education has become a costly affair for millions of people in the country. In fact, you are further distancing it from the people by decreasing the budget outlay for education, which you presented yesterday. The poor in this country cannot get an education, but there are no job options for those educated either. And even when we want to earn a decent livelihood of street vending, we face
harassment and threats of evictions from various authorities on a daily basis.
Even when the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihoods and Regulating Street Vending) Act, 2014 was passed by the UPA II Government, very few State Governments have implemented the legislation. The Act grants a right to livelihood to us street vendors and is intended to provide solace to us from all the harassment. However, we continue to be left out of public spaces; police officers demand hafta, municipal authorities threaten to evict us, residents call us dirty, that we obstruct traffic, and other
such unreasonable allegations are made against us. It has been four years since the Act came into force and four years since you have been the Prime Minister of India.
If you thought this was an honorable profession, why do we continue to be perceived as a nuisance? The Lieutenant General of Delhi ordered massive evictions, in blatant violation of the 2014 Act. Why has no action been taken against any authority across the
country for trying to evict vendors? What have you, Mr. Prime Minister, done for us street vendors? When you sat in opposition to the UPA Government, you vehemently opposed Foreign Direct Investments in Retail – against Walmart and Target entering our country. However, you have now approved 100 percent in single-brand retail. This will no doubt harm small businesses, including us street vendors. To add insult to injury, your ‘smart cities' project is ensuring complete evictions of street vendors.This project is not only affecting our livelihood, but is taking away our right to shelter as well. The smart city has become synonymous with evictions of street vendors and slums. Your vision of development does not include us, sir. Instead, your policies are increasing the number of dispossessed people every day. There is no respite for us from poverty. So, where is our acche din? When you demonetized the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes, us street vendors were the most affected. You want to make India cashless.
Do you expect our customers to swipe money into our phones for a dozen banana? In addition to this, you've introduced GST. It is wiping out small usinesses who source small items for us to sell.
Sir, we do not want a ‘Smart City,' we do not want a ‘Digital India,' we do not want ‘Make In India' or your ‘Swacch Bharath,' if it doesn't allow municipal workers, construction workers, slum dwellers, and street vendors to live with dignity. We want public education, public health system, and public housing! You are shirking your responsibility to provide us all of this and are instead privatizing our entitlements. Yes, it is employment if a person sells pakoda on the streets. But, do not use us as an excuse for your inability to provide jobs to the citizens of this country, and going back on your promise. On the contrary, we street vendors stand on our abilities
and hard work.
We will fight against anyone who takes away our rights!
Yours Sincerely,
Bengaluru Jilla Beedhi Vyapari Sanghatanegala Okkuta
Contact: 9880316961, 9880595032, 9686757053
Email: bvokkuta@gmail.com
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Sambhal violence orchestrated by BJP, govt to divert attention from poll rigging: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district over the survey of a mosque was "orchestrated" by the BJP, the government and the administration "to divert attention from electoral malpractice".
Police used tear gas and "minor force" in the face of stone pelting by locals in Sambhal on Sunday as tension escalated during a second survey of the Mughal-era mosque, claimed to be originally the site of an ancient Hindu temple.
Ten people have been detained and a probe was launched into the violence, an official said.
Tension has been brewing in Sambhal over the past few days after the Jama Masjid was surveyed last Tuesday on the orders of a local court following a petition that claimed that a Harihar temple stood at the site.
A day after the Uttar Pradesh bypoll results were declared and the Samajwadi Party managed to win just two seats while the BJP and its ally RLD bagged the other seven, Yadav levelled serious allegations against the police and administration.
"A serious incident occurred in Sambhal. A survey team was deliberately sent in the morning to disrupt discussions about the elections. The intention was to create chaos so that no debate on election issues could happen," the Samajwadi Party chief claimed.
Citing reports, he said several people were injured in the violence in Sambhal and asked when a survey of the mosque was already done, why was a new survey conducted again and "that too in the morning and without preparation?"
"I don't want to go into the legal or procedural aspects, but the other side was not even heard. This was intentionally done to provoke emotions and avoid discussions on election rigging," Yadav said.
"What happened in Sambhal was orchestrated by the BJP, the government and the administration to divert attention from electoral malpractices," the former UP chief minister alleged.
Asserting that in democracy, true victory comes from the people, not the system, he said, "The new democracy created by the BJP ensures that people cannot vote while the system dominates."
He added that whenever an impartial investigation takes place, and the truth comes out through booth recordings and CCTV footage, it will be evident that "voters did not cast their votes and someone else became the voter inside the booth".
Yadav claimed that on the polling day, the police and the administration removed the Samajwadi Party's almost all booth agents and many supporters who wanted to vote.
"If voters were prevented from voting, then who cast the votes? If Samajwadi Party votes didn't reach those booths and our candidate didn't get support, then who voted there? This is a serious issue," he said.
"Additionally, there were two types of slips, -- one with a red mark and another regular slip. We raised this issue on the voting day itself, stating that the administration had created such arrangements, leading to discrimination," Yadav alleged.
The Samajwadi Party's candidate for the Kundarki assembly bypoll Haji Rizwan too has alleged that his supporters were prevented from voting.
The BJP's Ramveer Singh won the bypoll in the Kundarki seat by a margin of over 1.45 lakh votes.
