Local market vendors protests against City Council

Vendors from the local market have protested in the compounds of the Male’ City Council Office today claiming that the council’s allocation of slots for vendors for the upcoming month of Ramadan is being carried out underhandedly.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the people leading protests told Sun that the slots are being allocated in an unfair manner, which posed an advantage to certain favoured groups.

“The slots in front of the fish market were announced for application previously, and then the announcement was cancelled and the slots were granted to whomever they pleased. We are receiving information that the same is being done this time around,” the person said.

He said that the Male’ City Council has been reluctant to assure them that the process will be carried out fairly and that the Mayor had refused to meet them upon request.

Male’ City Mayor Maizan Ali Manik previously told the media that the slots in front of the fish market are permanent slots, and that the slots were granted according to regulations.

The Mayor said that the slots inside Male’ Local Market are temporary slots that are leased annually. He said that the vendors are clearly aware of the arrangement.

“The slots in front of the fish market are permanent slots. The slots were leased in a very transparent manner. The other slots are ones that we lease out annually. We are carrying out the process as we have every other year, and they know this as well,” Mayor Ali Manik said.

There are 163 slots in the market area. The Mayor said that criteria considered when leasing the slots are; that the person not be a resident of Male’, that the person not a hold a government or private job, and that the person have at least a one year record of local farming.