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Over 40 street vendors and their families from Moor Market in Chennai staged a protest on Monday, July 14, alleging that the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) illegally demolished their shops without any prior notice on the morning of Saturday, July 12.
According to the vendors, 41 shops were demolished using bulldozers around 7 am, without any communication or an eviction order despite their stalls being officially recognised by the Town Vending Committee (TVC) under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. The Act protects vendors from sudden evictions and mandates a survey, notice, and rehabilitation plan before any action is taken.
The protest was organised by many vendor unions, including the Moor Market Allikulam All Vendors Welfare Association and members of the vending committee from Royapuram (Zone 5), Anna Nagar (Zone 8) and Teynampet (Zone 9). The protesters demanded immediate reconstruction of their shops and compensation for the damaged and lost goods.
Addressing the media, MV Krishnan, General Secretary of the Chennai Metropolitan Small Traders Association Federation, said, “Before any eviction, the Corporation must provide an alternative space. Only after the vendors are relocated, the demolition should happen. Even the goods seized during eviction must be returned. Here, they demolished everything without warning. It is a violation of the Street Vendors Act," he said.
Many of the affected vendors have been operating in the area for decades, running flower stalls, food carts, and tiffin centres. Mathina, one of the evicted vendors, said her entire livelihood was ruined in minutes. “We have been living here for 30 years. They demolished four of our shops on Saturday morning without saying a word. I earn around Rs 400 a day with my pushcart. I have two children who are physically disabled and cannot speak. This shop helped me feed them. Now we are left with nothing,” she said, adding that she has breathing difficulties and no house to live in.
She said that the authorities did not show any interest in verifying their documents and were intent on demolishing their shops.
“A single cart costs Rs 30,000. They did not even check our documents. We had a court order and we were approved, yet they still bulldozed our shops," she added.
Krishamoorthy, a TVC member from Zone 5, said the demolition violated the protections granted to recognised vendors. “Many shops have been functioning here since 2006. We told officials not to proceed with the destruction. They did not even issue an oral warning before bringing in the bulldozer,” he claimed.
The vendors also cite a 2015 Madras High Court judgment, which had ruled that vendors cannot be evicted without a proper survey and the formation of a TVC under the 2014 Act.
TNM reached out to G Chokkalingampillai, Zonal Officer of Royapuram (Zone 5), who vendors allege was responsible for issuing the demolition order. This story will be updated if and when a response is received.