After 1-year delay, Chandigarh MC to start process to set up new town and vending committee

Chandigarh, March 9

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After a delay of one year, the Municipal Corporation (MC) will start the process of forming a new town and vending committee (TVC).

Vendors will be elected/nominated in the TVC on March 24. Following which, members of RWAs and NGOs will be called and appointed in the panel. A former TVC member said once the panel was formed it would go to the MC House for approval.

Later, it will be sent to the UT Administrator for the final nod. The new committee then will be notified.

With delay in formation of the panel, vendors’ survey, which is supposed to be conducted every five years, could also not be done. Around 10,000 registered vendors divided in three categories — street, essential and non-essential — were shortlisted in the first survey in 2016.

However, several of them lost their vending licence during the Covid pandemic. Some did not find vending sites allotted to them suitable. After five years, the process of allotting alternative sites has begun. Most sites are lying vacant raising question over the MC’s implementation of the Street Vendors Act.

“The process of electing vendors will be initiated on March 24. After the formation of the panel, things like survey will be decided,” said MC Commissioner Anindita Mitra.

The TVC, which was formed in 2016 to look into the matters related to street vendors, has been lying defunct since March last year.

Registered street vendors, who had several issues to raise during the pandemic, feel they not being heard by the authorities.

“Not have working TVC is against the Street Vendors’ Act. Also, actual representatives of vendors should be nominated in the panel so that our real issues come to light,” said Ram Milan Gaur, president, Street Vendors Association. —