Some of the stipulations under which the vendors were being allowed to operate were for them to sell non-perishable items such as pens, baskets, soaps and clothes on Coldatinta Avenue on weekends, and the market clerk would collect fees for the use of the space.

However, since Christmas weekend, the vendors were ordered off the road by the police, and some were even fined for illegal vending, even though Reyes was repeatedly informed about the situation by San Juan/Barataria Constituency Chairman Ansil Morris, asking him to address the problem.

Morris spoke with the Mirror earlier this week, and said that he had faxed out letters to the SLRC asking for permission for the vendors to use Coldatinta Avenue on a stipulated time-frame.

“Reyes has been ignoring the vendors.

“I am now going to write to the Ministry of Local Government because from what I understand, they have gotten resistance from the police who have been threatening to give them tickets,” he said.

Samaroo’s mother, who also sold non-perishable items on the street, said: “If Reyes does not want us to sell on the street I cannot understand why the corporation cannot complete work on the top floor of the San Juan Market.

“It has been many years that the top level has remained unoccupied because of its incomplete state.”

She continued: “You see, it is just 18 vendors.

“If the vendors who sold perishable items were agitating for that space they would have gotten it already.”

She believed that Reyes was ignoring the problem at hand, since he was in a “high” position to do so.

This vendor sells out of her packed bags.

One of the 18 vendors who wants to pay a fee
to sell on Coldatinta Avenue.

A vendor, selling green vegetables, defied the
police last week by continuing to sell his
goods soon after he had been fined for
illegal vending.