Rahul Gandhi now reaches out to Delhi street vendors, promises to fix their problems

On Monday morning, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited Raghubir Nagar of New Delhi to meet the street vendors who have been complaining of lack of facilities in their area. “The vendors called me saying that they don’t have enough facilities. The poor workers here have not been given any space in the city. So, I am here.” Rahul said. The Congress vice president said that they street vendors were being oppressed and he would attempt to solve their problems. [caption id=“attachment_2339208” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “] Image courtesy: Twitter – @ANI_news[/caption] Many of the vendors reportedly hailed from Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, but Rahul refused to make any statement on this fact. After meeting with multiple groups, the Congress vice-president promised them better facilities and that Congress would take up their cause during the Monsoon session of Parliament. Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken and PC Chacko were also present with Rahul. On 19 February 2014, Rajya Sabha had passed the bill which aims to regulate street vending and protect the rights of urban street vendors, besides ensuring steps against their harassment by police and civic authorities. The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2014 — which Lok Sabha had cleared on September 6 of last year — also provides for protection of livelihood rights and social security of street vendors. Rahul has been focusing on taking on the Prime Minister and NDA government over not fulfilling its promises and doing nothing to fight corruption. The Modi government is already under fire over Lalit Modi row and the controversial Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh.