“Prohibition, Dispersal and Deconstruction Are the Worst Job to Do”

Sunflower, chewing gum for five tetri and cigarette – these are all that are placed on low wooden table for sale. The owner of the stuff is called a street trader and she sells those things in bad and good weather and day income hardly amounts to three lari. The street trader should keep the whole family with that money and now they are left without that three lari either. Local Authority started severe control on street traders.

The authority that cares about the beauty and appearance of the streets has attended to the street traders now.

“Street trading has never been allowed in our country. It is not nice to see goods stretched on the street. We offer the street traders places to go on with their trading in the markets and shops. We will support each trader to find trading places,” said Mindia Devsonadze, Akhaltsikhe Municipality Governor.

Street traders do not believe their promises. “They know how to persuade people with kind words. However, they never keep promises,” “We have already witnessed their fraudulent promises,” said traders.

Street traders said in private conversations that they would not trade in the building the authority had offered them because in that case they would have to pay fees.

“I have two diplomas but now I am in the street and sell toys. Last year Saakashvili’s wife bought a toy from me. And is there anything bad in my trading? I am standing here and selling toys. Now they are telling me to go. Where should I go? Where should I stand to trade?” asked seventy-two-year-old street trader Valerian Gojiani.

“I occupied a small place in front of the market; I sold cigarette and sunflower there. What should I have bought with the money I earned except bread? Although sometimes there are days when I manage to buy meat, such days occur once a month only. Now I have lost that hope too. I do not know how to live on,” said forty-six-year-old Temuri.

“Now there is more space in the street. You will not run into bowl or brush walking along the street. Dozens of people have lost their only source of income. If these people were not poor they would never stand in the cold to trade? Let the government create better conditions for them and then attend to facades and sidewalks,” said Nazi Kurtanidze, a local resident.

“Everyone can disperse people and deconstruct buildings, it is easy. One should think of reconstruction and resolution of the problem. An official needs only to open a mouth and the order is made. However, he should think of the result of his order. Street trading must not exist! I agree with you. I do not like to stand in the pond with my light shoes and watching the passers by whether they are taking their hands to the pocket to get money from there. Prohibition of the street trading means depriving the traders and their families from their chance of earning living,” said retired teacher Givi Gogoladze.

Gulo Kokhodze, Akhaltsikhe