RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Aug.10: Poor vegetable sellers are being punished in the name of maintenance of law and order at Daladali Chowk under the Nagri police station area. The situation arose after a CPM leader Subhash Munda was shot dead on July 26.
A locality resident informed this saying the administration is not allowing vendors to assemble at Daladali Chowk where Haat is organized two days in a week, Wednesday and Saturday. “Due to the absence of a vegetable market, local people and Simlia residents are facing a lot of problems,” the resident said.
“It is being argued by the administration that setting up a market leads to congestion and encourages criminal activities. On Wednesday, when other people, including Simlia residents and vegetable vendors, reached Daldali Chowk to buy and sell vegetables, they had to face a scuffle with the police administration,” the resident said.
A senior BJP leader and national vice president of Save the Nation Movement, Sunil Kumar Singh, supported the villagers saying when he had gone to purchase vegetables, he noticed the administration troubling the common people.
“Some vegetables of the shopkeepers were thrown on the road by the policemen, while some vegetables were seen kept in the police car. When the public protested in favour of some of the women who had come to sell vegetables, the policemen beat them with sticks in the police station and threatened to lock them up. In such a situation, the condition of starvation has arisen in front of vegetable sellers. People are also facing vegetable scarcity,” he said.
Officer-in-charge of Nagri police station Rohit Kumar admitted the problem but expressed his inability to allow the market.
“Police have decided not to allow establishing a weekly market as it has been observed that it causes law and order problems,” OC Kumar said.
Mandar MLA Neha Shilpi Tirkey slammed the administration’s stance, saying “it is a remedy worse than disease.” She stated that it was wrong to deprive people of their source of income under the guise of law and order. “If the administration perceives a threat in the market, it should establish a police outpost for proper vigilance rather than prohibiting poor people from selling vegetables,” Tirkey said, expressing concern about the situation.
