Refuse to move to Dasara Expo venue; no veggie sales today

Mysore/Mysuru: In a curious turn of events this morning, vegetable vendors of the M.G. Road Market who were asked to either move to Dasara Exhibition venue or the Lalitha Mahal Grounds Market refused to budge from their places and squatted on their designated places. They just sat quiet and did not even sell their vegetables.

The Mysuru City Corporation Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde had passed an order yesterday asking the vendors to shift to Dasara Exhibition venue or the Lalitha Mahal Grounds temporary market as it was literally impossible to maintain social distancing at the M.G. Road Market.

As the order was issued yesterday, it was expected today that the vendors would either move to the new places or they might resort to protest. Both did not happen this morning and the vendors, who had got vegetables from their far-flung villages, quietly sat on the ground at their usual places under tree shade. The place was neither barricaded nor had the Police beefed up security. But there was minimum Police presence.

Vendors refused to sell their vegetables while some of them slept leaning onto their vegetable stocks. Some confided to ‘Star of Mysore’ that they will neither move to the new place nor sell vegetables at M.G. Road Market. “Our lives have been destroyed and now if we move, the authorities will not allow the market to function even after lockdown. They might seal this place permanently,” a vendor said.

Another lady vendor said that the M.G. Road Market has five toilets each for men and women. “A the Dasara Exhibition, there are only two toilets and we are over 70 vendors. At the Exhibition venue, there are other vendors too. How will we manage? Here the facilities are good and there is enough shade for us to complete the sales and leave for our homes by 10 am. The Exhibition venue is full of dust,” she said.

Today, the vendors had the breakfast supplied by their association and left to their homes with their stocks. Other vendors too are of the collective opinion that they will not budge from this place.