Street vendors’ figure in Panchkula pegged at 2,860

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, April 15

There are official 2,860 street vendors in Panchkula. The Municipal Corporation will start giving registration forms to these vendors from tomorrow.

In the first phase, there were 1,562 street vendors in Panchkula, but now the final figure has reached up to 2,860. Of these 2,860 vendors, 40 are mobile vendors who move from one place to other, whereas the remaining vendors operate from the fixed place only.

Panchkula MC Commissioner Rajesh Jogpal said the street vending policy for Panchkula is at final stages. The survey for Panchkula has been completed and soon they would get the figures of Kalka and Pinjore.

A senior MC official said after the licences will be given to street vendors, they would allow illegal vendors to operate from Panchkula.

Rudhrabhishek Enterprises Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, was allotted the work of carrying out the survey. A mobile-based application using GIS mapping with digital photograph of vendors was employed in the survey conducted under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act-2014.

As per Section 3 (III) of the Act, no street vendor will be evicted or re-allocated from his/her place of livelihood till the survey is completed. However, no vendor will cause any obstruction in the movement of vehicles and pedestrians.

The District Town Planner has already been asked to identify and allocate six sites in Panchkula and two each in Kalka and Pinjore for street vendors.

Parliament had passed Act

Notably, the Parliament had passed the Street Vendors’ (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, which guarantees them the right to work as street vendors. They can be evicted only as per provisions of the Act.

Encroachment on roads by vendors

Residents complained to the Haryana Urban Development Authority, Municipal Corporation and the District Administration regarding the encroachment on roads by vendors. Residents had complained that vendors have encroached upon every possible space in the city.

Four postgraduates among vendors

Among these street vendors, there are four postgraduate and 58 graduate street vendors. As many as 54 per cent street vendors did not attend school whereas 10 per cent only attend school till primary classes.