Street vending project hanging fire for want of land

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 22

The much-awaited street vending project is hanging in fire due to non-availability of land required for the project. More than two and a half years have gone by, but the MC has failed to provide land to the street vendors under this scheme.

Under the Street Vendors Act, 2014, it is mandatory for the civic body to come up with a plan. The MC had hired a Noida-based REPL Consultant Company to conduct a detailed survey of vendors last year and it had been completed.

After the completion of the survey, the MC had to provide permanent space to street vendors in the city under the scheme. The civic body will also have to issue licences to them. The MC had issued identity cards to them, but it had not been able to provide land as it has not able to find any land inside the city where these vendors can be accommodated.

In the first phase of the scheme, the exact number of street vendors was to be counted and licences were to be issued to them.

In the second phase, sites in the market will be selected and allotted to them for a specific period of time. The work of first phase has been completed, but the second phase has not been started yet.

With the implementation of the scheme, the traffic problem is likely to be addressed to some extent as a large number of street vendors are seen on footpaths and along main roads in the city.

The roads that are affected due to encroachments by vendors are Ajit road, Mall Road, Power House road, Railway Station road, Sirki Bazaar and Bibi Wala road among other stretches.

At many places, street vendors have encroached on parking areas, due to which people face problems.

Mayor Balwant Rai Nath said the land had not been provided yet to the street vendors under this scheme, but assured that soon this work would be done.

Under this project, the MC will have to make arrangement for toilets and clean drinking water for vendors, besides ensuring that the area allotted to them is easily accessible to customers.

The MC will provide the required place to the vendors to carry out their businesses and it will be ensured that the vendors will be shifted to the allotted place.

The smart chip cards, containing biometric data and government-approved licences and certificates, containing all the details, will be issued to the vendors.