Relax rules for hawking sites in city, civic body asks court
The MCD requested the SC to relax the parameters for identification of vending/hawking sites for implementation of MCD’s scheme aimed at regulating hawking and vending activities in the Capital, reports Satya Prakash.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Tuesday requested the Supreme Court to relax the parameters for identification of vending/hawking sites for implementation of MCD’s scheme aimed at regulating hawking and vending activities in the Capital.
The scheme, framed in accordance with the National Policy on Street Vendors, 2004 and approved by the Supreme Court last year, envisages a ban on roadside cooking except serving of tea and coffee. It is expected to clean up the city’s streets before the 2010 Commonwealth Games and provide better facilities to hawkers and public alike.
Keeping in view the pedestrians’ rights, the court had directed that no vending sites should be located on a footpath unless a clear five-foot space was made available for pedestrians. The standard common size of tehbazari sites has to be 4x6 feet.
The MCD is, however, facing difficulties in implementing the scheme on account of requirement of 9-foot wide footpath for vending activities.
MCD counsel Sanjiv Sen said there were hardly any 9-foot wide footpaths in the city and if the civic body strictly followed the parameters laid down by the court, barely 7,000 vending sites would be available for allotment against a whopping 1.30 lakh eligible hawker applicants and 80,000 existing authorised hawkers.
A bench headed by Justice S.B. Sinha directed the MCD to make provisional allotment of vending sites with the condition that they can be shifted to some other site, if needed. It also asked the MCD to publish the list of eligible vendors on its website. The bench also reiterated its direction that only sitting Additional District Judges should head the Zonal Vending Committees.
Sanjay Kumar, Managing Trustee of SEWA Delhi, which is a petitioner in the case, said: “The way the MCD is implementing the scheme, it might taken two-three years. The whole process should be expedited and the names of the vendors who have been left out should be included in the tehbazari list in a fair manner.”
Kumar also said SEWA’s demand for earmarking an exclusive area for women vendors and regularizing historic bazaars like the Sunday book bazaar, Daryaganj.