Cost of a turf war in Vijayawada’s Besant Road

From a vantage point, Besant Road in the evenings resembles a viscous stream of dense crowds. Shouts of hawkers pierce the din of the busy market but most fail to draw the attention of the milling passersby.

As one acclimatises to the street’s vibe, a peculiar pattern emerges. Every shop along the 700-metre road has a banner, hanging from awnings or stuck to doors, with the slogan, “Save Besant Road”, written in large, block letters. On the other hand, on every hawker cart hangs a card with the message: “It’s not fair to deprive the poor of their livelihood”, written in Telugu. At times, shopkeepers and hawkers exchange wary glances at each other.

The banners and cards are part of a cold war brewing between shop owners and hawkers on Besant Road, one of the busiest and most lucrative shopping centres in Vijayawada. The former blame the hawkers for “encroaching” on the road and chipping away at their business while the latter highlight their right to livelihood. Even amidst the feverish energy of the road, an undercurrent of tension between the two groups sticks out like a sore thumb.

A road, a cash cow

Considered an asset of the city, the road used to be the go-to place for residents and visitors to Vijayawada. Its proximity to the Vijayawada Railway Station and Pandit Nehru Bus Station, both around 1.5 km away, helped it attract many customers.

For many, Besant Road is a sentiment. “It’s where we used to go for a stroll after watching a movie. One could find everything, from pens worth Rs.10 to clothes worth Rs.2,000,” recalls M. Raju, a photographer from Visakhapatnam.

According to shop owners, there are around 200-250 shops on the road, providing direct and indirect employment to approximately 8,000 people, including owners, cleaners, workers and security guards.

As for hawkers, there are 260, according to information shared by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation. About 50% of them do not have a licence. Of the total, women hawkers number around 60.

For almost half a century, shop owners and hawkers did business on the road cheek by jowl, with the latter confining themselves to 3×3 feet of space allotted to them on both sides of the 40-feet road by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC).

According to some shop owners on the road, the tension between the two groups spiked after a wave of new hawkers began streaming onto the road around 2016 and placing their carts close to the middle of the road.

This move dented the profits of the side hawkers, who responded by increasing their space. “The area occupied by them swelled to 10×10 ft. Some have 2-3 carts and receive political backing,” alleges 44-year-old Madhavi (name changed), who has been running a women’s clothing shop on the road for the past 26 years.

Today, there is no space for three persons to walk side-by-side. With hawkers on either side occupying 10 ft. each and the hawkers in the middle occupying another 10 feet, there is just enough space for a motorcycle to pass. “When I collapsed at the shop one day in December last, there was no space for even an autorickshaw to come,” says Madhavi, who recently underwent a surgery.

A campaign

Two weeks ago, a group of shop owners, part of Besant Road Business Community (BBC), launched a campaign titled ‘Save Besant Road’ to highlight the problems they have been facing for nearly 10 years owing to “encroachment” of the space by hawkers. It was launched in response to 12 more carts coming in the middle of the road.

Shop owners have been taking out rallies, silent protests and other programmes every day since the campaign’s launch; they want the hawkers to be shifted to another place in the city.

All the ten shop owners that The Hindu spoke to both on and outside Besant Road said the business ambience of the road is collapsing. Many allege that families no longer want to visit the place owing to the congestion, eve teasing and a fear of theft.

“It should not be our problem alone. How can the corporation keep quiet when a few individuals are occupying a road without permission? Isn’t the road a public property?” asks Sasikanth (name changed), another shop owner who alleges that he received a threatening call from an unknown number after speaking up against a hawker last month.

Members of the BBC say they must have dropped tens of letters at the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, police station and the collectorate, complaining about the encroachment of the road, but received no help. Last month, they began meeting MLAs, MPs and ministers, requesting them to intervene.

Governorpet Circle Inspector Naga Murali, however, says there has been no complaint about eve teasing or theft on the road. Asked why a police picket has been installed on the road, he says it is a precautionary measure given the tension between the hawkers and the shop owners.

What the hawkers say

While the shop owners say that the solution lies in shifting hawkers to another place, the latter have their own story to tell.

Though four of five hawkers, whose carts are in the middle of the road, refused to speak, saying the cart ‘owner’ would have answers, one hawker, Thota Ravi, who has been doing business in the market since 1991, says it is unfair on the shop owners’ part to demand removal of all the hawkers.

“They talk about congested roads and eve teasing. We have never done such a thing. They also say there is not enough space for a fire engine to pass in case of an accident. But, does every shop have a fire extinguisher? Why does no one check that?,” he says, adding that in some cases, two hawkers depend on a single cart.

Thota Ravi says his cart has been in the middle of the road for the past 10 years and no one had any problem until recently.

Many of the hawkers came to the market decades ago from Srikakulam in search of work. They spend the day under a blistering sun, hawking their wares to eke out a living.

Suramma, who does not remember her age, says she came to Vijayawada with her parents when “Indiramma” was in power (in the early 80s). “Out of the plastic ware worth ₹3,000-₹4,000 I bring here, only items worth ₹700-₹1,000 get sold a day,” she says, adding that her father was selling fruits here earlier. Her cart on the side lane is near Madhavi’s shop.

“I have been coming here every day, staying under the sun from morning till night and living a hand-to-mouth existence. If we are removed from here, how can we live?” she asks.

B. Venkateswara Rao, president of Side Hawkers’ Association, says Besant Road is famous because of hawkers. “Shops sell products at a high price, so people turn to us. The whole issue is not because of us but because of those who put their carts in the middle of the road last month,” he says, hinting at the involvement of ruling party leaders. Side Hawkers’ Association is affiliated with the CPI(M)’s Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

Those who have carts in the middle of the road have another association.

He adds that because of the new carts in the middle of the road, their business, too, has taken a hit. “There is a 50% reduction in footfall. We used to get 80-100 customers a day, now it’s fewer than 50,” says Mr. Venkateswara Rao.

Responding to the issue, TDP floor leader and corporator N. Balaswamy says that the old hawkers, who he said are supporters of the YSRCP and the CPI(M), don’t want anyone else to enter their turf.

Whose road is it?

Responding to allegations of encroachment, former Chief City Planner, VMC, G.V.G.S.V. Prasad, stepped down from the post recently, says that while it is illegal to occupy the road, Besant Road has been a free vending zone so far. “The vending zone has not been demarcated properly. This has to be done by the Town Vending Committee, which has not held a meeting to discuss these issues over the past few years,” he says. Shop owners, however, say the committee does not have a BBC member in it.

“First, it was the onslaught of malls, then online shopping and then the pandemic—whatever little business we have is being taken away,” says Sasikanth.

In a shop like the one owned by Madhavi or Sasikanth, 16 workers are employed. They are paid anywhere between ₹12,000 and ₹15,000 a month. “The rents run into lakhs of rupees. Then there are taxes, water charges, electricity bills, municipal licence fees and sale licence fees among others. We are not left with much profit after paying for everything,” he explains.

Moreover, not all stocks get sold. “We cannot return them. We will keep them in the racks for a while, then push them to the storeroom, which is now full of such unused stocks,” says Madhavi, who gets her clothes from Ahmedabad and Mumbai. She claims that over the past five years, there has been no profit at all.

While the political blame game continues, it is both the hawkers and shop owners who are losing out. During visits to the street, many of the large shops looked empty, without customers. Conversations between the hawkers centre around how there are fewer and fewer customers these days.

The next course of action

Recently, the VMC constituted a team to survey the number of vendors and their activities. A draft proposal suggesting measures to decongest the road and re-accommodate carts has been submitted to the Town Vending Committee, Mr. Prasad says. If it is approved by the panel, it will come into effect.

As per the draft, the 40-ft. wide road will have an 8-ft. footpath on both sides, followed by 6-ft. dedicated vending zones for hawkers on both sides, followed by a single lane of 12 ft. for one way traffic. The proposal also calls for re-accommodation of carts on the road to avoid congestion. It remains to be seen how this arrangement will unclog the road, given the fact that the current width of the traffic lane comes around 10 ft.

Now, the ball is in the committee’s court to decide how to strike a balance between the rights of hawkers, shop owners and customers and to restore vitality to the city’s oldest business centre.