Losing livelihoods, fruit vendors of Kothapet live in fear of traffic police

Fruit vendors near Chaitanyapuri Metro face eviction by LB Nagar Traffic Police, causing financial distress and chaos.

Close to 150 fruit vendors near the Chaitanyapuri Metro Rail station are facing a harrowing time for the past 10 days as LB Nagar Traffic Police are relentless in their attempts to evict them.

Citing traffic chaos as the reason, the police have been making multiple rounds of the area throughout the day, chasing away the vendors, majority of whom are women.

While the wholesale fruit market, which had been in Kothapet earlier, was shifted to Batasingaram over two years ago, the retailers who had made the area around the footpath their unofficial market place, have nowhere to go.

“I bring the merchandise from Batasingaram market and sell it at Kothapet. There are no habitations around Batasingaram, and hence no demand,” shared G. Yadamma, a vendor.

She would make her mother sit for her till she returned from the market. She was shocked to find out that the traffic police had shooed her mother away in her absence.

She said: “They have taken away two crates of apples and my wooden stool. They are doing it in the month of Ramzan when we look forward to make some profit.”

Each crate of apples costs her around ₹3000-₹4000 and she earns a profit of ₹200.