IMC team, pushcart vendors clash over removing encroachment

Indore: A clash erupted between pushcart vendors selling fruits on Harsiddhi Road and Indore Municipal Corporation’s (IMC) encroachment removal gang during Corporation’s drive to free the spot of encroachers.
In videos of the clash, which went viral on social media, vendors and IMC team can be seen abusing and thrashing one another over seizing of pushcarts while a large quantity of fruits are seen lying on the road.Both the sides accused other of initiating the fight, prompting the police to intervene and bring the situation under control.
The clash brought traffic on this busy road to standstill.
“IMC team had first made an announcement, asking roadside vendors to remove their pushcarts as the same were leading to traffic jams. The team then seized pushcarts of a few vendors who refused to follow the rules and were creating ruckus,” IMC commissioner Shivam Verma said. “An application has been sent to Raoji Bazar police station against those who attacked IMC team,” he said.
Verma said that IMC has been continuously setting up hawker zones in different areas to accommodate the roadside vendors, but some instead set up pushcarts on the road.
The vendors also approached the police to lodge a case against civic body’s team that allegedly caused them huge loss and also thrashed them.
Indore Congress working president Devendra Singh Yadav reached the spot and demanded IMC officials develop a hawker zone to accommodate the pushcart vendors of Harsiddhi area before removing them from the road.