Street vendors can’t be evicted from Sec 17, pronto: MC to High Court

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 7

The walkers’ paradise in Sector 17 will take some time to be free from street vendors. Information to this effect was furnished before the Punjab and Haryana High Court during the hearing of a case on street vendors and city-related issues.

As a petition filed by Daya Kishan and other petitioners against the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents in the case came up for hearing, an affidavit by Municipal Corporation Additional Commissioner Uma Shankar Gupta was placed before the Division Bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Amit Rawal.

The Bench was told that in terms of Section 3 (3) of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, no street vendor would be evicted, or as the case may, be relocated till the survey specified under Subsection (1) has been completed and the certificate of vending is issued to all street vendors.

“Thus, in terms of the provision, the street vendors in Sector 17, Chandigarh, cannot be evicted till the certificate of vending is issued to all vendors. The process for the same is in progress,” the affidavit said.

Elaborating, the affidavit said the process of verification and registration of surveyed non-essential service providers or stationery vendors had been planned from November 21 to December 29 for the entire city, including Sector 17.

“Thereafter, the street vendors will be issued certificate of vending in vending zones and shall be rehabilitated/relocated in Chandigarh... The entire process is likely to take approximately three months”. The affidavit added the Department of Urban Planning had identified sites for vending zones, which had been approved by the Administrator.

The Bench, at present, is hearing a bunch of petitions on Chandigarh’s upkeep.

In one of the petitions filed by Prof RD Anand, the Bench was told about the constitution of a committee to maintain greenery and for development purposes. During the course of arguments, the Bench was also told about the presence of vendors in green areas across the city.

Aggrieved by “hijacking” of the Rose Festival for making it a “mela”, Professor Anand had earlier minced no words to say the Chandigarh Administration, the Municipal Corporation and another respondent had since last year “insensitively” permitted eatables, ice-creams and other stalls within the Rose Garden, making it a “huge flea market”. A news-report carried in these columns was also annexed along with the petition.

In his public interest litigation (PIL), Anand, through counsel Puneet Sharma, had prayed for directions to the respondents against organising fairs and melas and to preserve the “purity of the purpose behind its creation”.

What MC affidavit says

• As a petition filed by Daya Kishan and other petitioners against the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents in the case came up for hearing, an affidavit by Municipal Corporation Additional Commissioner Uma Shankar Gupta was placed before the Division Bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Amit Rawal.
• The HC Bench was told that in terms of Section 3 (3) of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, no street vendor would be evicted, or as the case may, be relocated till the survey specified under Subsection (1) has been completed and the certificate of vending is issued to all street vendors. 
• “Thus, in terms of the provision, the street vendors in Sector 17, Chandigarh, cannot be evicted till the certificate of vending is issued to all vendors. The process for the same is in progress,” the affidavit said.