IMPHAL, December 18: Around 20 woman street vendors were stopped while trying to march towards the state Assembly today demanding the discussion of street vendor policy during the ongoing Winter session.
The rally started from Thangmeiband College Gate but the women came face to face with a horde of police personnel after they moved only a few meters away. They were stopped from proceeding further and forced to turn back. The women protestors wielded placards that read ‘Implement National Urban Street Vendor Policy”, “Street Vendors Are Also People, “Do Not Treat Them Like An Animal,” “We Want Our Right To Live”, “We Feed Our Children with Honest Work Not by Stealing”, and “Establish Town Vending Committee”.
One of the protestors who is a street vendor said the protest rally was taken out in support of a street vendor policy which had been passed by the Supreme Court in 2009. She further said they are demanding immediate discontinuation of harassment by police meted out to road side street vendors at Khwairamband Bazar.