Woman street vendor continues protest in Kochi
The Hindu
She runs a roadside eatery in division 55 of corporation
A woman street vendor and her daughter continue to sit on a hunger strike near the Kadavanthra metro station in protest against the alleged move by the Kochi Corporation to forcibly evict them from division 55 where they run a roadside eatery.
Rema Ramesh who runs the eatery opposite the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) office at Kadavanthra has been protesting with her daughter Aparna Ramesh since Thursday night.
“We have been running the eatery at this location for over a decade. We are even in the list of eligible street vendors published by the corporation though our address has been erroneously given as division 62. This was done deliberately by division councillor Malini Kurup in connivance with the vendor in our neighbourhood,” said Aparna.
The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.