Shopkeepers seek stringent action against unauthorised hawkers in Capital area
Manama : Fruit and vegetable shop owners in the Capital have urged authorities to take stricter action against street vendors as their businesses are affected by illegal hawking.
The entire stretch of Al Muatasim Avenue, Road No 421, Block 304, in the Capital area, is occupied by illegal vendors and hawkers.
“I run a fruit and vegetable shop along with my father in the area. The whole stretch is occupied with illegal hawkers. Initially, when a few hawkers occupied the area we were at least able to cover our cost, but now, it is almost impossible,” Abdul Alim who runs a shop at the Shri Krishna Temple Lane told DT News.
“Hawkers need to pay only the purchasing cost of a product. We not only have to pay the cost of the product but also rent, electricity bill and the CR,” he said.
“We asked the hawkers to co-operate with us several times but they refuse even listen to us. There are more than 30 hawkers in the lane and it is almost impossible for our businesses to survive,” he said.
“We really hope that the officials in charge will take immediate action and help our businesses survive. At least previously we had officials from LMRA (Labour Market Regulatory Authority) and Municipality coming for inspection regularly but now for almost six months there has not been any inspection at all, leading to too many hawkers occupying the street,” he added.
“These illegal hawkers have monopolised the entire market. A few hawkers in the lane even have rented a storeroom near the Joffery Supermarket to store their wares. Most of the fruits and vegetables are kept in extremely unhygienic conditions. They have no permit for the storeroom. The storeroom rent is divided among four hawkers in the lane. Several hawkers are doing the same and making it impossible for us to survive,” said another hawker without revealing his identity.
“We agree this has been an on-going issue but the Capital Municipal Council is working really hard to eradicate this problem. We have set up a special inspection teams to solve the issue of the growing illegal hawkers and vendors in the Capital. However, we will look into this matter immediately and make sure we help the shop owners to be back to the business and make sure that the illegal vendors do not hurt their market,” said Engineer Mazen Ahmad Al-Omran, Vice Chairman of Capital Municipal Council.
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