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Those familiar “issovadai” carts on Galle Face Green may soon be a thing of the past
View(s):- The Sri Lanka Port Management & Consultancy Services say it’s about sanitation but questions arise whether it’s more to do with gentrification
By Mimi Alphonsus
When renowned global TV chef and documentarian, Anthony Bourdain, tried street food on Galle Face Green for his episode in Sri Lanka in 2017, the public seaside walkway bustled with “issovadai” carts and “kottu” stands. Today, it’s a starkly different story.
The vendors say the authorities have told them to clear out. Some have returned home, to Slave Island, without work. But many have shifted their carts to the Galle Road border, resisting police and risking turf wars with preexisting roadside sellers.
Galle Face Green goes back to 1859 when it was used for British colonial sporting events. Over the years, it transformed into an iconic space where the public gather to eat street food, fly kites and watch the spectacular sunsets.
Nowhere to go
One vendor who has sold “vadai” there since the 1990s insisted they were the original “keepers” of the landmark: “Before the soda sellers came; before the Municipality set up stands in 1996; before the UDA [Urban Development Authority] introduced plastic ‘Coca-Cola’ shops in 2014; before Gotabaya [Rajapaksa] built the cement stalls under the walkway and rented them out in 2022; before all of this, our mobile vadai carts were here.”
They all now risk permanent eviction, they allege. The Sri Lanka Port Management & Consultancy Services (Pvt.) Ltd. (SLPMCS), a government-owned company under the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) removed vendors for Independence Day celebrations. This was standard practice. This time, however, they were not allowed to return.
“Normally, we come back to Galle Face around 3pm after Independence Day celebrations are over,” said one cart-seller. Fearing the authorities, he, like a majority of those interviewed, asked not to be named. “So, we bought the prawns and made the vadai but it was all for nothing.”
Their businesses run on debt, he explained. They borrow money to buy produce for the weekend and settle the lenders the next day. And having to sell on the Galle Road, to where they have shifted, has hurt their income.
One vadai vendor who claims to be licensed said he regularly made between Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 25,000 on a Friday. This has now dropped to around Rs. 10,000. He has worked at Galle Face for three decades.
Mohammed Arshath is a construction worker who helps out a cart-seller during his free hours. Since the vendors are not licensed to work on the Galle Road they are often “harassed” by police, he said. There are daily altercations.
Another vendor works for a relative who has a permit. She is worried about her family. “We pulled our daughter out of her IT course during the last few months we didn’t have enough money,” she said. “As we don’t have a pass, we can’t fight to keep our right to Galle Face. We have to hope that our relatives do.”
Some of the traders have shifted their carts to the Galle Road border. Pic by Eshan Fernando
The soft drink-sellers in the cement shops, too, expressed opposition to the SLPMCS plan. “We want the vendors to come near the sea,” said Chaminda Vithanage. “There are fewer customers since they have left. Once people eat vadai, they will also want a drink from us.”
Sanitation or gentrification?
The authorities have claimed they are concerned about food standards and public health. Some vendors admitted there have been sanitation issues largely among unlicensed vendors who set up on Galle Face Green during COVID-19 and the economic crisis.
“They don’t know this profession well so the PHIs (public health inspectors) found rotten food and the use of incorrect methods,” said one vendor. “But they were struggling financially so we felt we shouldn’t say anything against them selling here with us.” He requested anonymity.
Inspections by the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) earlier this year did reveal some sanitation issues, the Sunday Times verified. Consequently, the PHIs jointly with SLPMCS conducted a workshop on cleanliness, CMC health officials said. They also vaccinated vendors for typhoid. But the CMC said they did not order the sellers out and that only SLPMCS was mandated to take punitive action, where necessary.
Vendors don’t believe public health concerns are the main reason for recent actions. They claimed that, even before they were cleared out on February 4 this year, SLPMCS officials had tried to chase them out saying vadai carts make the area unappealing to the Port City and high-end developments.
Pointing to the new Indian ITC Ratnadipa hotel that is opening next month, Vijayakumar, who has been a seller for over 40 years, said the intensive policing only started after the new developments. “They have wanted us cleared for a long time, but especially now with the ITC,” said Tuan Nazar Najeem (Toyna), the owner of Nana’s Kottu stand. Nana’s has been shut down since COVID-19 and never permitted to reopen.
During interviews with vendors, it was even suggested that the government planned to “sell” Galle Face Green to private developers. These fears have basis in fact, they said. In 2003, when Galle Face Green was under the UDA, a management contract was planned to be signed with a private company. But the Supreme Court ruled that, since the contract entailed payment by the management company to the UDA, it was more of a lease than a management contract; and therefore amounted to a wrongful attempt “to pass into private hands” public property.
Rumours and lack of information
The absence of clear communication from SLPMCS has left vendors confused and fearful. It has also birthed rumours–such as that some sellers have been promised Rs. 3mn each to give up their permits.
The different licence statuses of vendors do not help. Some haven’t paid their fees for several months. And after a month of pursuing the SLPMCS for a meeting, some vendors received a letter with the SLPMCS stamp and letterhead demanding that they settle their arrears (Rs. 2,500 is charged per month).
These sellers maintained that they hadn’t paid their dues because the SLPMCS had agreed to a waiver in view of serious economic challenges. But many admitted that they had run up arrears even before COVID-19.
The letter also said only the first ten to pay up will be given the spots. But there are 29 sellers who claim to have permits. Vijayakumar alleged that this was “an ugly attempt to divide” them.
Meanwhile, Secretary of the Galu Muwadora Velanda Sangamaya (Galle Face Vendors Society) Gamini David met with SLPMCS officials on Thursday after calling off a scheduled protest, allegedly at the behest of the police. He said these officials accused many vendors of operating with irregular licences.
Attempts to push a few vendors into the cement stalls and to expel the rest demonstrate a lack of thought for both vendors and customers, said IromiPerera, a researcher at Colombo Urban Lab which advocates for equitable and sustainable cities in Sri Lanka.
“Gentrification of vendors and moving them to designated spaces without consultation is not new and has happened at the Pettah floating market and the Manning market in Peliyagoda,” she said. “You’re trying to mimic what you think is a world-class aesthetic but losing the unique identity of Galle Face and its iconic carts.”
“What customer would want to sit in an underground concrete shop without the view of the sea, just looking at a concrete wall?” she asked.
French tourists visiting Galle Face to try the famous “issovadai” said they enjoyed the carts. “It’s nice to taste the local food and it’s nice to see the vendors next to the big hotels,” one said. “If there are big developments, there is no soul and no reason to come here.”
Of the vendors Sunday Times interviewed, many had started working at Galle Face as children. Many others took over the trade from their relatives. Selling street food is their traditional employment, they said, and that access to Galle Face Green was their ancestral right.
“They celebrated the country’s independence,” one woman said, “and then took away ours.”
Plan to move sellers into underground shops: Director SLPMCS | |
Managing Director of SLPMCS Suraj Kathurusinghe said they had a list of 19 vendors who have worked at Galle Face for a long time but that they did not hold official permits.The plan is to move the sellers into 10 existing underground shops, he said, adding that more than one can occupy each if they were willing to share. “If there are any remaining vendors we will have to come up with a solution,” he said. This process was initiated after health inspectors flagged sanitation issues and suggested that measures be taken to ensure that the vadai sold at Galle Face is not brought from homes but made at Galle Face “then and there”, Mr. Kathurusinghe explained. So the SLPMCS had attempted to move them into the cement shops where they can cook the food. Mr. Kathurusinghe also said, however, that the Ports, Shipping and Aviation felt the carts were “ugly”, “dirty” and “broken” and that they discouraged tourists. This too had contributed towards the decision to regulate the vendors. Cement stalls were the solution and that they had to be built below ground because of the contract under which the government came to own Galle Face (that reportedly does not permit building above ground). Meanwhile, public health officials from the Colombo Municipal Council said that when food is cooked at home and brought to Galle Face, it is exposed and unsanitary. They had suggested to the SLPMCS to install a shared kitchen and water source at Galle Face from which the carts can cook and operate. Although there are many mobile vadai carts around Colombo, health officials said that they made specific recommendations for Galle Face after conducting a health awareness programme there. |
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