Ahmedabad: AMC removes platforms for vegetable vendors from under Jamalpur Bridge

Exercise undertaken to ease traffic and parking issues; corporator calls it policy flip-flop, demands alternative space for vegetable vendors

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s drive to remove platforms from under the Jamalpur bridge has come in for criticism by the Congress and local vegetable vendors.

AMC removed the structures on Wednesday to ease traffic and parking issues in the area. The civic body had constructed them years ago to facilitate vegetable and fruit vendors.

The construction of platforms under the Jamalpur Bridge gave vendors legally-allotted space from where they could sell goods without disturbing the flow of traffic.

Congress corporator of Jamalpur ward Shahnawaz Sheikh said there’s no problem in creating parking space to reduce congestion in the area. But it should not be done at the cost of vegetable vendors who earned their livelihood there. An alternate arrangement must be made for them.

He said, “Earlier, the AMC removed huts of the poor in the name of development (Sabarmati Riverfront) and now it is bent upon snatching away their livelihood.” The same AMC had built 300 platforms outside the Jamalpur Flower market about two decades ago. However, due to political bickering none of them were allotted to any vendor. This forced vegetable vendors to sit by the roadside for earning daily bread.

Sheikh demanded that AMC come up with a concrete policy instead of flip-flops that affect the livelihood of the poor.