JEDDAH, 2 May 2006 — In a bid to stop the illegal practice of selling fruit and vegetables on the sidewalks, the municipal authorities started a crackdown here yesterday.

“The municipality and police will continue the operation for two more days and will tear down the illegal structures,” a municipal official told Arab News.

Such stalls create crowds on busy roads and may cause accidents and traffic bottlenecks, according to Ziya Shuja Al-Othmani, director general for markets at the Jeddah municipality.

Several traders, Saudis and non-Saudis alike, who were rendered jobless and lost the means of livelihood because of the sweep, complained that they lost thousands of riyals because they have no place to store perishable produce as the municipality did not issue a warning notice prior to their action.

“We have been attracted to this place because we can sell fruit here without waiting for the lengthy process of obtaining a license and thus earn a livelihood. Now we have become unemployed, besides losing the money spend on buying vegetables and fruit to sell here for the day. They expelled us without any warning,” said one of the evicted fruit sellers on Al-Quraish Street.

Asked why the traders were not notified in advance, Abdullah Al-Otaibi, a municipal official, said to Arab News that “warning notices are issued only to licensed traders practicing their profession in a legal manner.”

Al-Otaibi continued, “They should take away their fruit and vegetables now or else we will dump them in the warehouse in the central vegetable market for distribution to charity organizations.”

Al-Othmani said that it is the vegetable market where these people are supposed to rent a space to sell their produce. “Illegal trading practices to make quick money is not permissible,” he added.

Muhammad Al-Najjar, a frequent customer to the stands, said, “I always buy fruit from here without bothering whether the shops are legal or illegal.”

Abdullah Rashoud and Abdullah Mahfouz, two passersby, said they were pleased to see that the place cleared out.