Durgam Cheruvu’s street vendors bear the brunt of a directionless GHMC

Street vendors in Hyderabad face eviction and lack authorized spaces to run their businesses, despite having identity cards.

Around the same time Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy intervened to prevent the police from closing down a popular roadside eatery near Durgam Cheruvu on Wednesday, a contingent of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s Serilingampally zonal task force swooped down on street vendors on the other side of the lake, just over a kilometre away.

Using earthmovers, officials demolished the tin-roofed structures, turned the pushcarts and seating arrangements topsy turvy, and warned the vendors not to encroach upon the road again.

“The vendors here keep changing based on the time. Today morning, those selling breakfast were asked to clear the location, and the lunch vendors were told not to set up shop. Later, the officials arrived with trucks and excavators and razed eight to nine shops,” said Shiva, a vendor of rolls.

The demolished structures and carts belonged to those vendors who left the evening before, with little knowledge of what would be in store for them the next day, Mr. Shiva said.

This is not the first time such an eviction has taken place. Four to five months ago, vendors were evicted reportedly upon instructions from GHMC Commissioner D. Ronald Rose whose residence is close by.

“A week or two later, they collected money and allowed us to reopen the shops,” said Sumitra (name changed), another vendor. None of the vendors working here possess identity cards issued by the GHMC.

“We pleaded for identity cards several times, but they kept dodging us on the pretext that it was a tourism zone,” Ms. Sumitra said. Serilingampally Zonal Commissioner Sneha Shabarish, when contacted, asked the reporter to contact the GHMC Commissioner instead. The Commissioner did not respond to calls.