Street vendors attack Dibrugarh MLA’s car

 A CORRESPONDENT

DIBRUGARH: A mob of around 200 street vendors on Saturday carried out an attack on the car of Dibrugarh MLA Prasanta Phukan while he was leaving after attending a meeting of the Dibrugarh Municipal Board. The mob led by one Madan Shah who claims himself to be the leader of the street vendors of Dibrugarh tried to stop the MLA from leaving and started banging on the car.

The police were immediately informed who arrived and escorted him out to safety. After the MLA left, the mob then turned their ire on the ward commissioner of ward no-5 Dibyajyoti Hazarika and physically assaulted him.

Hazarika was injured in the attack and his t-shirt was torn in the process. They even tried to attack Dibrugarh Municipal Board Chairman Saikat Patra, vice chairman Ujjal Phukon but were saved due to the intervention by the police. Dibrugarh SP Shwetank Mishra and district officials rushed to the site to control the situation.

Following the incident, an FIR was lodged at the Dibrugarh police station by the DMB chairman against Madan Shah and others. The Dibrugarh Municipal Board also threatened to cease work if the culprits were not arrested within 24 hours.

Meanwhile acting swiftly, the Dibrugarh police arrested Madan Shah and has been booked under sections 143, 147, 341, 352, 353 and 427 of the IPC.

The Dibrugarh Municipal Board has been carrying out continuous drive against those street vendors who are illegally encroaching the footpaths and streets of Dibrugarh town. The civic body has even provided specific vending zones to the street vendors but a section of the vendors refuses to move to the specified vending zones.

On the other hand, through voice message, Madan Shah appealed the members of his organisation to save him. “He appealed all members of the organisation to share his message in Facebook groups and in all social media groups,” Saha stated in a voice message.

DMB has already created a vendor zone for the street vendors but it seems that some street vendors don’t want to shift in the designated places. Recently, DMB carried out an eviction drive in Dibrugarh to clear the encroached areas.

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