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by Ranga Jayasuriya

One would say the city of Colombo, especially the heart of it, is synonymous with disorder. Unauthorised structures mushrooming in Pettah and Fort - the nerve centres of the country's commercial capital - make sure that the first impression of any visitor to the town would be ghastly, contrary to whatever plans the government has to promote Colombo as a financial hub of South Asia.

It is no surprise if one gets a shocking impression on visiting a slum city, when travelling through the Bodhi Raja Mawatha, which is just a stone's throw from the busy business centres.

Junkies dug into heaps of refuse left aside by the vegetable traders in the Manning Market and retrieve vegetable and dry fish, which are later sold on the side of the Gas Works Street.

Life in these neglected corridors of Colombo is uncharted waters for the law and health enforcing authorities where the underworld thrives, as police turn a blind eye.

The scenery by the Fort Railway Station is symbolic of the disorganisation in city planning. Just opposite the Fort Railway Station, visited by many a tourist daily, street hawkers run a brisk business in wooden and polythene structures. Their business may be good, but the social cost of ever increasing disorientation must surely be very high.

In the absence of any kind of regulation, hawkers have crept into the city pavements everywhere. Hundreds of vendors occupying the city pavements opposite the CTB Central Bus Stand are more an inconvenience than a service to the hundreds of thousands of working public, who daily travel through the Pettah Central Bus terminal.

With hawkers having occupied the pavements, pedestrians have no other option, but to walk on the crowded city streets.

And no solution is in sight as city authorities continue to turn a blind eye.

Very much aware that city mafia is linked with the street hawkers, the Colombo Municipal Council does not want to invite trouble.

It is not the CMC, but the local underworld that collects tariffs from pavement hawkers. And there is illegal gambling, drug trade and prostitution carried out in these gloomy corridors, away from the eyes of the law enforcement agencies.

Even when the relevant authorities decided to act to regulate pavement hawking, there is an obvious lack of will and efficiency on the part of the bureaucrats.

The Urban Development Authority has set up an alternative business complex opposite the Gunasinghepura bus stand for the pavement hawkers on the Bodhiraja Mawatha, and another complex has been set up in Saunders Place, opposite the MarkFed building, for the pavement hawkers of Olcott Mawatha.

But hawkers have not moved. They keep their business on the side of crowded streets. The UDA has decided to turn a blind eye. There is an obvious lack of courage on the part of the UDA to push ahead with the program.

The Saunder's Place complex is now squatted by drug addicts and vagabonds, who rent out space for prostitutes and their clients at night. The other complex has been abandoned.

Hawkers are hellbent against any move to relocate them to alternative complexes.

Obviously, they do not want to lose business, as it is already known that they have questionable business tactics, which could only be possible in the utter disorder of crowded city streets.

Hawkers have their side of story too. They say they cannot pay taxes to the CMC and bribes to the underworld. On the streets, they pay only to the underworld.

Should they move to the alternate complex, they fear that they will have to pay both parties: the CMC, which is the legitimate owner of the complex and the underworld, the defacto ruler of the street life.

And the UDA and CMC remain silent, while the public continue to face inconvenience.

***

Deputy Mayor says...

Deputy Mayor of Colombo Azath Salley accuses the CMC officials of turning a blind eye to the "hawkers menace".

"This is a million rupees racket. The Police, CMC officials are all involved in it," says the Deputy Mayor of Colombo, adding that he is helpless as bureaucratic lethargy and vested interests have hindered his earlier plan to rid Colombo's streets of hawkers.

"The CMC and UDA have set up two alternative buildings and sent pavement hawkers there. But they have gone back to the pavements,"

He accuses the police of condoning pavement hawking. He says police are "part of the racket". "If these people have forcibly returned to the pavements, against the orders of the UDA and CMC, police should have take action. But they are part of this racket".

He says he has spoken to the IGP and Chief Minister, but no action has so far been taken to address the problem.

"Police should ensure the smooth flow of pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the town. Police should act at least now to clear the pavements of these people," says Azath Salley.

He complains that the CMC officials have vested interests. "Therefore, CMC just turns a blind eye to this menace"

Asked what he can do in his capacity as the Deputy Mayor, he says he is helpless.

"I tried to clear the streets last year and Municipal Commissioner stepped in to stop it. As the Deputy Mayor I am powerless, but I will clear the mess once I become the Mayor."

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