Date:14/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/14/stories/2009011455770800.htm

Tamil Nadu

New bridge deprives them of their livelihood

L. Renganathan

They solely depend on tricky means to reach their customers

PHOTO: R. M. RAJARATHINAM

UNCERTAIN: Small vendors at Lalapet are facing a bleak future. —

KARUR: No traveller or commuter on the Karur-Tiruchi highway could miss them. In fact, quite a few eagerly await their appearance. For, Lalapet’s vendors bring them a range of things from water packets to flowers and fruits, neatly put in a carry bag as travellers proceed with their journey. They were patronized by a large section of the travelling public. Braving odds and displaying daredevil alacrity, the youthful among the famed Lalapet vendors coordinate nimble footwork with the speed of the wheels, hop on to the moving vehicle to do a business for Rs.10 and get off, all in a matter of two or three minutes – the time taken by the buses to negotiate the Lalapet level crossing that has been closed after the inauguration of the Rail Over Bridge.

In fact, the gate had not only shut the road that crossed the tracks but also the livelihood of these small time vendors, all landless poor hailing from the villages falling in the arc between Thimmachipuram and Manavasi on the Karur-Tiruchi highway. The vendors sell banana, jackfruit, palm fruit, flowers, water packet, groundnut, etc. They solely depend on the dangerous and tricky means to reach their customers on the move to eke out a living. They risk their lives and limbs to earn a few rupees to support their families.

There are 100 such vendors and many have been in the business for several years.

Now that the buses and other vehicles would speed away on the new RoB that skirts their area of operation, these hawkers are staring into the barrel. “Some bus crew despise us and do not allow us into their vehicles but many humane crew tolerate our business for the benefit of passengers. The on-and-off trouble is now a permanent one as development in one stroke has plucked away our very livelihood,” says S. Vasudevan (41) of Pillapalayam, near Lalapet. “We know no other trade except this. In fact, we were so immersed in making both ends meet that we forgot to representour case to the authorities or Karur MP K.C. Palanisamy who has helped bring about the RoB,” observes another vendor, Rathinam of Lalapet.

The sellers come even from areas across the Cauvery like in the case of 62-year-old Alagu Nachi of Kodurapatti near Thottiam on the northern banks of the Cauvery along the Tiruchi-Namakkal highway.