The vendors of Gujari Bazar, a weekly market held every Sunday on Sabarmati riverbed since last 600 years, have decided to set up their wares from Ellisbridge to Khamas area this Sunday, a release from their lawyer said.
It should be noted that these vendors are those that had been traditionally sitting outside the riverbed. Armed with a high court judgement that gave them interim relief, the vendors plan to prevent the municipal authorities from evicting them.
The market had been dismantled and the vendors removed when the riverfront project came into being. The vendors who had been setting up their stalls within the riverbed had been accommodated while those who had been operating outside it had not been accommodated by the authorities.
It should be noted that the bazaar believed to be over 600 years old initially began as a small place of business on the dry Sabarmati river bed but soon expanded spilling out of it. After the vendors (who were operating outside the riverbed), were evicted they had moved the Gujarat high court seeking their inclusion in rehabilitation. The matter is still pending but the high court had through an interim order directed the police and municipal authorities to permit the vendors who were part of the bazaar to operate their business from Ellisbridge to Khamasa police Chowki. The municipal authorities and police had following the crackdown on removing encroachers from the road had disallowed the vendors to operate on a Sunday on this stretch. "The authorities had also been served contempt notice for removing the vendors but they continue to flout the court orders," the release said.
