Responding to a recent eviction drive conducted across the city, street vendors in the city have urged Coimbatore Corporation to implement the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, and stop removing traders without allotting vending zones.

In a petition submitted to the District Collector, the District Roadside and Pavement Traders Welfare Association said over 17,000 registered vendors within the city limits had been issued identity cards under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission. While Chennai Corporation conducted town vending committee elections in all 15 zones and allotted spaces to traders, no such steps had been taken in Coimbatore, they said.

Vendors claimed the civic body was removing traders from key locations without notice, affecting marginalised communities and small and marginal farmers who sold essential goods. They sought immediate allocation of vending zones, provision of basic amenities, and an assurance that no vendor would be evicted until these measures were implemented.

A Corporation official said that without designated vending zones in place, any stalls or shops set up by vendors were treated as encroachments and were therefore removed during the recent drive across the city. On the status of vending zones, the official said there was no update at present and that the matter was under consideration.