Puri, Dec 23: Hundreds of vendors operating between the Chakratirth and Sankar international beach front on Thursday staged a road march to the collector’s office protesting against the proposed second Blue Flag beach.
Since vendors are not allowed to carry on business in the blue Flag beach most of them have lost livelihood because of one blue Flag beach and now the Puri administration has come out to open a second blue flag beach.
Visitors are allowed to enter the blue flag beach only after buying entry tickets. This apart many vendors were driven out of the beach on the pretext of a beach front development project.
Earlier protestors had prevented leveling work on the beach by dredging and squatting on the beach since last one week to prevent development of the second blue Flag beach at Chakratirth. The protestors showed the collector a letter from the divisional forest officer regarding creation of blue Flag beach.
Local BJP MLA Jayant Kumar Sarangi pledging his support to agitating vendors said it was wrong on the part of administration to evict the vendors without resettlement and rehabilitation. A meeting with collector has been fixed on Friday for discussion to discuss the issue, sources said.
