A recent irregularity in the distribution of News Papers has affected in Udaipur due to the strike carried out by hundreds of hawkers demanding an increase in commission on the margin amount.

More than 300 registered hawkers of Udaipur Hawker Association have temporarily discontinued supply of daily Newspapers across city.

According to sources, many of the hawkers and their families are solely dependent on the earning generated by the supply of newspapers, and at the same time they also face the inflation and price hikes that are aggregating year after year. They were benefited with profit share in the year 1994, and since then the price of newspapers went flat, resulting in financial crisis for hawkers.

According to the information provided by some of the hawkers, there are more than 1,500 newspaper hawkers in the city; including both part timers and regular. They are further divided in five major hubs viz. Surajpol, Mallatalai Fatehpura, Hiran Magri and Sunderwas.

They collectively distribute more than one lakh copies to end-users in the city.

Madan Sharma, President of the Udaipur Hawker Association told UT, “till now, 3 hawkers have committed suicide due to financial crises; we also had a talk with prominent newspapers, but they haven’t shown any interest yet”.

Sharma also told that the managerial staff of some newspapers are manipulating things to call off the strike.

According to Sharma, the major problem is the prevailing competition in print media and there race of becoming bestselling in the market.

Ramchandra Paliwal, Secretary of the Association said that we have carried out number of strikes in the past in Udaipur as well as in other parts of Rajasthan, but nothing fruitful came up; now we are thinking of approaching INTUC for help.

Report by Sayeed Ahmed