‘Youths give cement-sand to UMC commissioner’
Udaipur : Udaipur Municipal Corporation officials had a tough time dealing with public fury on Thursday. While on one hand vendors, majorly women dumped vegetables and fruits on the streets to protest against the UMC’s encroachment clearance move, on the other hand some youths went to the municipal commissioner’s office with a demand letter asking to repair the damaged roads causing casualties in Hiran Magri area.
In a symbolic protest, they took with them small bags of coal tar, cement, sand and stones to express their anguish on the bad shapes of the city roads. The youths said, if the road is not repaired in three days, they would resort to a traffic block.
Meanwhile at Delhigate-Bapu Bazar road, tension brewed when some women vegetable sellers threw away their baskets and dumped veggies and fruits on the main road to protest the encroachment clearance drive of the UMC officials. The vendors said the employees were harassing them since a month and not letting them sell veggies in the space that had been occupied by them for a long time.
Few of the women said, they were the sole bread earner for their family as their husbands were either critically ill or no more and hence their children would starve if they are not able to let work peacefully. Later, the UMC trash collection vehicle cleared the mess and cleaned the road. SatyaNarayan Sharma, the health and sanitation officer said, the veggie vendors were blocking the traffic and creating nuisance for the commuters.
“The lorry vendors have been instructed many times to keep moving but they keep themselves stationed in a location causing traffic problems. Similarly the women folk too were asked to keep their activities in a certain limit but they do not listen and come on roads. The Smart City work is in progress and we have to manage the traffic with the construction work and these people do not cooperate” the officer said.