Tension prevails at 22nd ward as vendors stage a protest

Visakhapatnam : Tension prevailed as the eviction process of shops carried out as per the High Court order at the 22nd ward of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Cooperation here on Saturday. Representatives of Pithapuram Colony Association filed a case in the High Court that there should be no shops and roadside vendors in the ward and that they should be removed.

Based on the court orders, the GVMC officials commenced removal of unauthorised shops in the presence of heavy police personnel.GVMC officials brought excavators and lorries to remove shops from Andhra Bank Road to Kalabharathi junction. As soon as the removal process commenced, small vendors staged a sit-in protest in front of the excavator.

The vendors requested the authorities not to remove the shops as they were the only source of livelihood.

They raised objections over the attitude of the GVMC officials. They pointed out that the shops were being removed without giving any prior information to them.

When Visakhapatnam east constituency MLA Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu came to know about the issue, he spoke to the GVMC officials and convinced them to stop excavation work. Following which, the removal of unauthorised shops came to a halt.