Vending zones still a distant dream

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 12

Despite repeated demands, street vending zones are still a distant dream for street vendors.

Opposing the fee being charged by the MC for stationing their carts, street vendors sought from the civic body to set up street vending zones for them at the earliest.

After their repeated demands, the survey of street vendors was kicked off last year. Though the survey has been done, street vendors claimed that they have no information when would the vending zones be set up.

President of Rehri Phari Federation, Ludhiana, Tiger Singh said: “The process to set up vending zones is moving ahead at a very slow pace. We met the MC officials recently requesting them to speed up the process.”

“We don’t know about the identified sites for street vending zones. Even we have not been given information about ‘No-vending zones’. There is a dire need to set up street vending zones, where vendors can run their business without any harassment,” he said.

Under the Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending Act, 2014, the MC is supposed to set up vending zones in different parts of the city. Thus, the identified street vendors would be allowed to sell their products at these zones and they would not encroach upon the road portion for stationing their carts.

District BJP vice-president Parminder Mehta said: “The MC charges illegal fee from street vendors in the city without setting up street vending zones. They should stop charging this fee. The MC should set up street vending zones at the earliest.”

Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu said the process to set up the vending zones in the city is under way.