The latest eviction occurred last week on the arterial Anna Salai, depriving 171 street vendors of their livelihood because the government saw them as an ‘eyesore’ for the city, according to P Karunanidhi, general secretary of Chennai City Small Traders Association.

In all, one lakh street vendors and hawkers, 20,000 of them in Chennai alone, have been evicted in the last 11 months in Tamil Nadu, according to V Mageshwaran, national executive committee member of the National Association of Street Vendors of India.

That the evictions are being carried out despite the PM’s letter to all chief ministers in August this year, clearly indicated the TN government’s ‘anti-street vendor’ policy, Mageshwaran said.

The letter points out ``The revised National Policy on Urban Street Vendors 2009 aims at ensuring that urban street vendors are given due recognition at national, state and local levels to pursue economic activity without harassment and at the same time, locations on which such activity is to be pursued are earmarked in Zoning plans.’’ While States like Madhya Pradesh and Orissa have implemented the policy successfully by issuing ATM cards for Rs 25,000 to free street vendors from the clutches of moneylenders and have formed special vendors zones, Tamil Nadu is following an anti-street vendor policy in the name of beautification of urban space, said Mageshwaran.

Pointing out that the HC in 2006 directed the formation of a committee with retired judge A Ramamurthi as chairman and that the committee should find alternative spots for the vendors before their eviction, P Karunanidhi said the eviction in Anna Salai was in violation of that order. While the judgment clearly stated that a survey should be conducted and identity cards issued to hawkers in Chennai within six months, nothing has been done in the past three years.

The anti-street vendor attitude has only helped local administrators and the police to harass the vendors.