RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) licence holding hawkers on Tuesday went on hunger strike against the civic body for shifting them from Mahfooz Road in Saddar to Chur Chowk.

In the cantonment areas, licences are issued to cart pushers to sell their goods in the specified areas. More than 400 cart pushers pay Rs1.4 million as licence fee to the cantonment board annually.

On Tuesday, the RCB removed the stalls and carts from Mahfooz Road to clear the footpaths. During the campaign, the anti-encroachment staff also confiscated goods of cart pushers in Tench Bhatta, Octroi 22, Bakramandi, Ahmedabad, Gawalmandi, Allahabad, Naseerabad and Misrial Road.

However, the hawkers staged a protest on Mahfooz Road in Saddar.

Mohammad Naseer, the president of the hawkers association, said the RCB was collecting fees from the vendors to allow them to sell their goods but last week it asked the hawkers to shift their stalls and carts.

“There are already so many cart pushers at Chur Chowk and Misrial Road and it will not be viable for us to shift there,” he said, adding they had been doing business in Saddar for more than a decade.

When contacted, RCB spokesman Qaisar Mehmood said all temporary encroachments were being removed on the directive of the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench.

“Traffic police have also pointed out that vehicular movement was being disturbed in Saddar, especially on Mahfooz Road, so the issue was taken up with the RCB president who allowed shifting of the cart pushers,” he said.

He said the RCB had issued licences in the past but did not renew them for the cart pushers in the areas where traffic issues had erupted.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2017