Vendors fight for space at rally sale on silom road

Police had to intervene yesterday after about 500 rally-affected vendors found their stalls for the walking street sale on Silom Road taken over by unregistered vendors.

Surakiart Limcharoen, director of Bang Rak district, said Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) officials closed Silom Road at 11pm on Friday to set up some 2,000 booths for the Together We Can Grand Sale.

But when the registered vendors arrived the next morning, outsiders had already occupied their stalls and refused to give them up, he said.

Deputy Bangkok Governor Thaya Teepasuwan said she had Surakiart file complaints with police against the vendors who were not part of the government assistance scheme.

She also instructed police and BMA officials to help the registered traders gain access to their assigned places as soon as possible and have the interlopers move to a location further down the road.

The BMA learned a lesson from this to have the stalls guarded until all registered vendors claim them, he said.

Next weekend another trade event to help riot-affected retailers will be held on Rang Nam Road, near Victory Monument.

Metropolitan Police blocked off another one-kilometre stretch of Narathiwat Ratchanakarin Road from Sathorn to Surawong intersections for the registered vendors.

Maj-General Panu Kerdlarppol, the deputy Metropolitan Police chief responsible for traffic, said the closure did not affect traffic in the area, as many motorists knew about the walking street and had avoided the surrounding area. One lane was also left open for vehicles.

This measure helped avoid fighting between the regular vendors on Silom Road and the visiting vendors who had signed up at the Bang Rak district office to sell goods during the weekend fair. However it came after city officials failed to talk the unregistered vendors out of the stalls.

The registered vendors were just told to wait until the issue could be resolved, but some decided to leave.

Nakan Niwatnirat, who had joined the event to sell food, said he would just go home and urged the organiser not to allow those who weren't affected by the riots to sell goods next time.

"Many registered vendors who were affected by the riots can't find a space to sell. Some who were using the stalls without permission claimed to have been working there for 10-20 years, so I didn't dare drive them out."