Udupi: ‘Sanna Vyaparasthara Sanga – Malpe’ staged a demonstration in front of the Gandhi statue at Malpe beach on Friday, July 24. They stayed out of business for a day observing the protest.
The street vendors of the beach have been working here from the past 30 years; they sell charmuri, fast food, ice creams, fish fry and juice items. They pay Rs.5000 every year to the Malpe Development Committee (MDC), it is said.
Now MDC has called for a tender for 25 to 30 new shops near the beach (on the sand), which had created panic among the existing shopkeepers.
President of the organization Jayalaxmi, “We already have all items for the tourists here; more shops near the beach will reduce our chance of earning”.
“The business season remains only for 9 months in a year, in the monsoon we have no work. With just the 9 months earnings we are paying Rs. 5000 to MDC, also look after our families and educate for our children. We are left with nothing”, she added.
Mohan Raj, one of the shopkeeper said, “If 30 new shops with the same business come here, we can’t live our life, we will have no other option than sending our children to work.”
Raju Thonze, a senior vender said that monsoons started and they already have business crises. “We find difficult to pay the 5000 to MDC as recently 10more shops were added here and the new shop keepers pay Rs. 50 per day to MDC. We are already struggling to survive and tender will put our life into hell”, he said
Protesting so as to save their livelihood, they demanded that the tender should be cancelled and new shops should not be allocated near the beach. A memorandum for the same was given to the DC.
