Mysuru: City’s first dedicated hawker zone is all set to be inaugurated at Ashoka Circle, popular as Ballal Circle. The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has almost completed the construction of platforms with basic amenities for vendors (mostly food vendors) to set up stalls at the place. The exclusive hawker zone is complete with drinking water, parking and proper waste disposal facilities. The delay in identifying and establishing a hawkers’ zone is cited as the reason for frequent clashes between roadside vendors and civic authorities. Most of the time, these vendors are forcibly evicted with the help of Police. While the MCC authorities feel that they are following Municipal Administration Laws for eviction, vendors complain of high-handedness and harassment. In the absence of clear-cut guidelines, hawkers regularly face the risk of being evicted during outbreak of water-borne diseases during summer. MCC officials hope to inaugurate the dedicated hawker zone at Ballal Circle ahead of Swachh Sarvekshan, the annual survey of India’s cities. They said that this hawker zone is the first among the three dedicated zones panned in city. A decision on the other two zones will be finalised soon.
