“We nah must go out. How we gon live?” one vendor questioned. This newspaper was informed that around 10 am yesterday a tractor and trailer belonging to the regional administration swooped down on the vendors with several workers to remove the stalls. Some of the vendors managed to escape but others, who did not, had their goods seized.
But by afternoon, they had returned to the roadsides. “Me just ah frustrated,” one woman said.
“We trying to make a day money to survive,” she added. The vendors called for the Parika Market to be repaired but noted that according to their information, there was no money following a recent fraud. They also said, at present, one individual “own three-quarter of the market.”
Regional authorities recently told the vendors that they would have to move or they would be forcibly removed yesterday. Some vendors had told this newspaper on Sunday that at a meeting with Minister of Local Government, Kellawan Lall, held recently, the minister had charged the regional authorities to find a suitable spot for the vendors. However, they said, last Friday, at a meeting they were bluntly told by Regional Chairman Julius Faerber that they would have to move to the spot at the back of the market.
The spot is unsuitable, the women said. They said that no one goes to that area and since they sell mainly perishables, these would spoil. They said also there is no security. The issue of roadside vending has been occupying authorities for some time, and the vendors said that they had gone to the area identified but after finding it unsuitable, had moved out. They have had their stalls on the roadside broken down before. Over 20 vendors sell on the roadsides.
The vendors, most of whom are women, said that it is their only source of livelihood and had called on the authorities to reconsider their decision until proper measures are in place for them at the Parika market.
