Residents of Gaur Grandeur and Eldeco Edge have locked horns over the issue of removal of vendors from the roadside of Sector 119, Noida.
More than two dozen fruits and vegetable sellers from a local village, Parthala Khanjarpur, have put up stalls on the road between Gaur Grandeur Apartments and Tripathi Hospital in Sector 119. Residents of Gaur Grandeur say that these vendors have blocked the entire space and people are finding it difficult to enter or leave the society, particularly during the evening hours.
Last Friday, residents of Gaur Grandeur allegedly removed the vendors from the road, and warned them not to put up stalls before the main entrance of the apartment. The residents are not against the vendors per se, but the trouble they pose.
Dipankar Bagchi, secretary of Gaur Grandeur Apartment Owners’ Association, told City Spidey that the vendors hang around the entry gate in the evening, causing huge inconvenience to the residents. There is frequent congestion before the main entrance. He adds, the vendors would stop posing a problem if they shifted 200 m from the society’s entry gate.
But herein lies the conundrum: If the vendors are shifted to the spot mentioned by Gaur Grandeur, the narrow road leading to Eldeco Edge Apartments will be affected.
Anil Agarwal, a resident of Eldeco Edge Apartment, alleges that some residents of Gaur Grandeur have been illegally occupying the road space. He protests, “They have been parking their cars on the road. They should first park their cars within their own society, and only then should they focus on removing the street vendors. What will these vendors do if you strip them of their livelihoods?”
Officials of the Noida Authority claim that they had carried out an anti-encroachment drive against these vendors just last week. On condition of anonymity, an officer said that the street vendors and local policemen are hand in gloves. He adds, by the time the anti-encroachment team reaches the spot, most of them disappear.