Plug loopholes before following the suit

Open House: Implementation of Street Vendors Act in adjoining cities

No doubt that reallocation of vendors is a big relief to the shop owners of Sector 17 and Sector 19. It will take time for these vendors to settle down in new places. The MC should have set up small pockets for separate trades such as readymade clothes, ‘chaat’ sellers, wooden goods and eateries to facilitate public. It has been already done in other cities — fashion streets in Mumbai, Lakkar Bazaar in Simla. The neighbouring cities should take a lesson and demarcate vendors’ space in sectors to facilitate their settlement and survival.

Harish Kapur, Chandigarh

Commendable job

Street vendors have become a part of our culture, but the nuisance created by them should not be acceptable. They were overcrowding places meant for the movement of people and parking. The Chandigarh Administration has done a commendable job by implementing the Act. Keeping in mind their welfare, the Administration allotted them sites at other places. Neighbourhood cities should definitely follow the example set by Chandigarh.

Bharat Bhushan Sharma

Authorities should be vigilant

Migrants come to the city in search of green pastures, but sooner than later their hopes are dismayed for lack of job opportunities. The easiest mode for survival is vending at public places. The culture had eroded the fabric of the City Beautiful. The action to evict them from Sector 17 and 22 and other other localities and rehabilitate them at appropriate locations is highly laudable . The civic authorities must remain vigilant to ensure evicted places are not encroached upon again. The situation in Mohali and Panchkula is worrisome as a large number of vendors operating in markets is a nuisance. Authorities must also ensure action against SCOs/booth owners who are found using passages for keeping their stock.

SS Arora

More needs to be done

On the direction of the High Court, eviction of vendors from no-vending zones and allotting them suitable place is a welcome step. However, more needs to be done in this regard, especially provide them with adequate basic amenities .To save the vendors from harassment, the MC should give proper sitting places to the vendors coming from Punjab and Haryana for selling things of daily needs to residents.

Col Balbir Singh Mathauda (retd), Chandigarh

Safety a concern

Chandigarh feels proud to have become the first city to implement the Street Vendors Act, 2014. Street vendors, under the garb of services to residents, had encroached upon public land. This leads to uninterrupted inflow of migrants to the city. These vendors made major city markets look like flea markets. Sometimes, this also leads to criminal activities. Vendors had given an ugly look to the Sector 17 Plaza. Pedestrians were finding it difficult to walk through corridors. Street vendors should not be allowed in any city of neighbourhood.

Vidya Sagar Garg, Panchkula

Humanitarian grounds

The experiment should be replicated in other cities also. More work needs to be done for rehabilitating vendors. Relocation has been done due to the efforts of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies. The relocation plan did not consider the rehabilitation of the vendors. The grouse of the relocated street vendors is they are unable to earn their daily livelihood due to low foot fall. Their earnings have fallen down. The Administration should think on humanitarian grounds.

Dr Rajeev Kumar, Chandigarh

Undue credit

Replication and rehabilitation of vendors, even in Chandigarh, is still an unresolved issue. Undesired credit is being extended to the Chandigarh Administration towards the implementation of the Act. Eviction of vendors from Sectors 17 and Sector 19 markets is still in infancy. Such vendors deserve punishment instead of being provided with sites.

MPS Chadha

Patient hearing to vendors

Street vendors in Chandigarh made their customers base after several years’ of hard work. Now, the MCC has ordered them to either shut down or shift to earmarked locations without realising the magnitude of adverse consequences that these poor vendors shall have to face. A big question mark of losing their livelihood is looming large on the faces of the hapless vendors. Now is the time to test how the MCC rehabilitates the displaced vendors. The MCC should give a patient hearing to the vendors.

Ravinder Nath

Make proper arrangements

Relocation of vendors is a good move by the Chandigarh MC. The Administration should have made elaborate arrangements for their rehabilitation. The vendors depend on day-to-day earnings for feeding their families. The city’s neighbourhood can try this, but before dislocating the vendors, they should make proper arrangements for them. MR Bhateja, Nayagaon Relocation of street vendor is must to clear markets and roads of chaos created by them. Other cities can follow in the footsteps. There is also a need for freezing the number of vendors to accommodate them properly. Roads leading to Kharar from Mohali and Chandigarh have been encroached upon by street vendors. The High Court should pass similar orders for other cities of Punjab to free its roads and markets of street vendors.

Wg Cdr Jasbir Singh Minhas (retd), Mohali

Irrational decision

The Chandigarh Administration has successfully implemented the Street Vendors Act, 2014, in letter and in spirit. It has rid Sector 17 and 19 of the street vendors. Relocation and rehabilitation of all street vendors stares the MC in the face. The decision of implementing the Act has been taken without looking into its practical application and consequences. Every individual has right to earn his livelihood and support his family. Street vendors are in a tight spot now. Neighboring cities should focus on relocation and rehabilitation before implementing such Acts.

Bir Devinder Singh Bedi

Not feasible for other cities

Claims of taming vendor nuisance in Chandigarh will evaporate soon with inconclusive and unresolved exercise of relocation and rehabilitation of fresh batches of migrant population, pouring daily to swell the menace. Administrations in the neighbourhood cities are already on the job, but will barely bear any fruit. Message needs to go loud and clear that everyone has a right to earn his livelihood, but the government is not obliged to provide land for it. Only mobile vendors that help households be allowed on inner roads with zero tolerance to vendors with stationary/fixed ‘addas’ on pavements or in market areas. Private taxi stands putting up permanent ‘addas’ on public land in different sectors are also vendors as are makeshift eateries using burners and ‘tandoors’ on pavements or in trucks. Chandigarh is a UT and replication of such civic practices and experiments may be feasible in the neighbourhood.

Lalit Bharadwaj

Give basic facilities to vendors

It is heartening to visit the heart of the City Beautiful, Sector 17, as it has been obliterated from the menace of street vendors which denigrated its beauty. While implementing the Act, the Chandigarh Administration acted smartly to keep the city clean and green and reallocating sites in different parts of the city. Not everyone enjoys shopping in malls, plazas and expensive markets. Flea markets with their quirky colorful stalls of vendors selling knick-knacks, fruit, vegetables and food are immensely popular with locals and tourists. The vending profession has been an integral part of both rural and urban culture as they cater to the needs of all types of customers and contribute significantly to society. Shifting them to defined places is an experiment which will give a new dimension to the Smart City. However, absence of social security, poor work conditions and little access to infrastructure may elevate vendors’ problems. The neighboring towns — Panchkula and Mohali — will surely follow the suit as they also intend to put street vendor in one place. The experimentation will work only if the state provides them with social security, improve their work conditions, economic, social and legal status.

BM Dhawan

Foolproof planning

Other cities can take the plunge with foolproof planning. Vegetable vendors should be allowed to sell their items only in ‘mandis’.

Mehak

Seek help of NGOs

The vendors in Sector 17, 19 and 22 were a headache for people and the Administration did a good job in relocating them. However, vendors have not been rehabilitated properly in Sector 15. The Sector 17 Plaza wears a deserted look. The Administration should have done the exercise on humanitarian grounds. The best way to shift these vendors should have been by creating a ‘Village Chandigarh’ in Sector 17 in the open ground where the administration allows circus and other events. Shops in Sector 17 have failed to pull crowds because people have better alternatives at Elante and VR Punjab Mall. The experiment lacks human, social and economic values which should not be replicated in city’s neighbourhood. The Administration may have sought help from NGOs regarding this.

Capt Amar Jeet Kumar

Great job

The Chandigarh Administration implemented the Act with sincere effort and collaborated with the authorities concerned and all stakeholders for peaceful resettlement of vendors. It can also be implement in neighbouring cities or in other states.

Vijay Malia

Shoddy work

The Sector 17 Plaza is now free of vendors and is quite clean for people enjoy a leisurely outing. However, the registered vendors, who were contributing to the MC revenue, have been left high and dry. Most of them are inconvenienced in adjusting themselves and their wares at the spot given. The sites are compressed in sizes with hardly any working and breathing space both for vendors and customers, not to forget the absence of toilets. The MC staff has not done its homework before taking the step.

SC LUTHRA, MHC Manimajra

Don’t replicate mistakes

Street vendors are encroachers and should be treated like that. Instead of solving the menace of illegal occupants, the Administration is giving out such costly pieces of land to them. This mistake should not be replicated anywhere in the neighbourhood

Ashutosh Vermani

Need for strategy

Neighborhood cities/ towns should also relocate and rehabilitate vendors a. However, they must keep in mind certain factors that were ignored by the UT — like the distance of allocated spots from their home, shelter against rain and uniform distribution of vendors to all sites. Vendors should not be allotted sites near educational institutions / residential areas as it will create nuisance in their day-to-day activities. New sites allocated should not be congested. Government must ensure strategic planning.

Abhilasha Gupta, Mohali

Welcome step

Eviction of street vendors from Sector 17 and from markets and other public places in Sectors 1 to 6, including Sukhna Lake and Rock Garden, is a welcome step. The condition of the heart of the City Beautiful — Sector 17 Plaza — was heartening. Street vendors add to the beauty and originality of the city, but they had crossed far beyond the limit in numbers, which had rather started giving an ugly look to the city. The authorities must now ensure rehabilitation of these vendors at earmarked places across the city. Vendors should also be charged one-time allotment fee and some monthly charges. This will discourage unnecessary vendors. Only vendors keen on doing some serious business will be left to operate at the allocated sites. Some vendors should also be allotted specific places in the official markets of various sectors to maintain the originality of the markets. Such steps will benefit the public and the MC will get an additional source of income. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had rightly observed that such illegal use of public areas by street vendors isn’t possible without support from the police and MC officials. The Panchkula and Mohali civic bodies must also work out plans for shifting the innumerable street vendors occupying spaces in various markets to some other spaces so that one can move freely in the markets. Also, parkings meant for vehicles parking should be used for that purpose only.

SANJAY CHOPRA

Sustainability is a major challenge in the implementation of the Act. The MC should collaborate with jurisdictional RWAs and MWAs. The Town Vending Committee should take care of the grey areas such as vending in heritage markets and mobile vendors on wheels. Chandigarh model can well be emulated by all local bodies. Vinod Vashisht, CITY Forum of Residents Welfare Organisations

I feel the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has done a commendable job in implenting the Street Vendors Act, 2014. The city now looks neat and clean. Mohali and Panchkula can also follow in the footsteps of the City Beautiful and rid the region of nuisance created by vendors. Maj DP Singh (retd), Sector 38 RWA head

Shopkeepers of Sectors 17 and 22 are relieved, but vendors are in a tight spot. The number of vendors accommodated in each sector should have been 2.5 per cent of the total population of the sector. How will the poor feed their children? The MC should give a chance to those who cannot pay licence fee on time. Devinder Singh Babla, Cong Councillor

Chandigarh has become the first city to implement the Street Vendors Act in letter and in spirit and it is a matter of proud for us. As far as appropriate spaces are concerned, we have written to the Chief Architect to provide the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation with more suitable sites so that vendors don’t face much problems. KK Yadav, MC Commissioner

Street vendors have been given sites in far-away places. They should be given space near their previous vending sites. They have been sent to places where there is no business. Also, they have no shelter to hide during rain. They are finding it hard to make both ends meet. Anil Dubey, Councillor

There has been an imbalance in allocating spaces to vendors. At some sites such as Sector 15, a large number of vendors have been given space, but in some sectors, there are no vendors at all. There is a need for better coordination and planning by the authorities concerned. Komil Tyagi, asst prof, city college

QUESTION

The condition of roads in Chandigarh as well as in the neighbouring cities of Panchkula and Mohali is very bad. Potholes on roads test the vertebral joints of vehicle drivers. The condition of slip roads is particularly bad. Do you think the authorities need to provide better roads to people who pay hefty amount as taxes at the time of registration of vehicles?

Suggestions in not more than 70 words can be sent to openhouse@tribunemail.com