This festive season, Mark Hare of Baimuru will be among many street vendors who will be peddling their goods across the nation’s capital.
But the 54 year old father of three says that unlike his Buai (betelnut) peddling partners he is still being targeted by the NCD foot patrol crew.
Hare claims that he has lost almost K1500 worth of merchandise in the past four months because of the “constant harassment’’ that he has had to face from the NCD enforcement officers who have been abusing him often.
He claims that at one stage they held him up after a good weekend of sales and walked off with almost K800 in cash as well as a full carton of eggs.
Meantime, NCD Buai Ban Controller Honk Kiap tells PNG Loop that there is a complaint process and urged all vendors to come into his office and be dealt with.
Despite this encouragement Hare and allegedly many others are still falling prey to the NCD sanctioned officers who are going around, taking advantage of the current restrictive laws enforced in the city.
Kiap advises that there are vendor licences that people can apply for that allow for them to carry out their business in designated areas. He argues that the main reason why so many are being penalized is because of the rubbish aspect of the marketing activity.
He says that was also the reason why the buai ban was enforced in the first place so that NCDC could deal with the rubbish from the be telut skins and spittle that resulted from the markets.
** If you are a vendor or have witnessed such acts of harassment by the NCDC enforcement officers please do not hesitate to get in touch with PNG Loop as we are interested to hear your stories.