Parties lock horns over ‘collection’ from hawkers
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service
Moga, October 20
Corruption in the name of collecting ‘tehbazaari’ from the street vendors and hawkers has come to light in the city. Municipal Corporation (MC) Mayor Akshit Jain said complaints had come to his knowledge a few days ago, after which he had ordered an inquiry by senior officials of the local body.
Preliminary inquiries suggested that few persons hailing from Faridkot were collecting ‘tehbazaari’ from street vendors and hawkers without any authorisation.
“We have initiated an exercise to identify these persons and legal action will be taken against them,” the Mayor said. Meanwhile, Gurpreet Singh Sachdeva, a BJP councilor, alleged that the MC had issued a contract to collect ‘tehbazaari’ on the pretext of festive season without any approval from the General House. Sachdeva alleged that the contract to collect ‘tehbazaari’ was issued by the MC in an open bid for Rs 98,000 on October 10. The rates were fixed by the MC- Rs 4 per square feet. But the contractor, with the help of his goons, was forcibly collecting Rs 80 to Rs 1,000 from vendors. There are approximately 3,000 street vendors and hawkers in Moga.
“I have brought this issue to the notice of Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi and the District Magistrate-cum-Commissioner of the MC demanding legal action against the officials concerned,” Sachdeva added. However, the Mayor claimed there were no such orders.
Deepinder Singh Sandhu, an Independent councillor who recently joined AAP, alleged that a hawkers’mafia was active under the patronage of senior BJP and Akali leaders.
On the other hand, smelling corruption in the local body, the Congress has demanded a vigilance probe. “The government must order a vigilance probe into the extortion of money from the poor vendors in this festive season,” Ravi Grewal, secretary of the Punjab Congress, demanded.
