Mysuru: The menace of roadside vendors in and outside Dasara Exhibition ground in the city, has resulted in a severe inconvenience to the visitors to the expo.

Every Dasara, the exhibition organised as part of the annual festival, draws people in hordes daily. However, the roadside vendors have been occupying the spaces in a rather haphazard manner, proving troublesome even to access the ticket counters outside the main entrance.

Apart from the visitors, the vendors who had set up stalls spending several lakhs of rupees on investment and rent, are suffering a huge loss, with no business. The roadside vendors swarm around the visitors on their way to the stalls, not sparing the narrow lanes that lead to Government stalls, food stalls, Karanji (water cascade junction) and selfie spot.

Kids, elderly persons go missing

Amid this hustle and bustle of road side vendors, the incidents of children and senior citizens losing their way, only to find them later, are being reported.

The moot question here is, who gave permission to such a huge number of unauthorised vendors to conduct business? When asked, vendors passed the buck on another including the unknown persons, besides taking the names of Chairman of Karnataka Exhibition Authority (KEA) and also the contractor — FunWorld India Resort Limited, which has secured the bid for Rs. 11 crore including the ticket counter, parking, food stalls and amusement park.

Ambulance

On the other hand, there are complaints about ambulance being stationed on the exhibition premises for a few hours in the evening, even though it has to be kept ready on the premises, to cater to any emergency, between 3 pm and 10 pm.

In addition to this, the KEA staff including the officials vacate the premises in the evening, with no staff available to air any grievances.

In dark

The exhibition is open from 3 pm to 9.30 pm on the week days and from 3 pm to 10 pm on weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and on Government holidays. However, on Saturday, the lights at Dasara exhibition were turned off at 9.30 pm itself, half-an-hour behind the schedule.