GMADA throws spanner in Mohali MC’s plan to implement Street Vendors’ Act

Senior town planner of GMADA, said the MC had proposed several sites but they could not permit it as it was not lawful for them parking or land-use wise

Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has put a spanner in the plans of the municipal corporation to implement the Street Vendors’ (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014, which has already been delayed by five years.

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As per GMADA, some of the sites proposed by the MC are not lawful as per land use. On the other hand, the civic body has failed to stop illegal vendors from operating in the main markets of the city. The worst-hit areas are Phases 7, 3B1, 3B2, 9, 10, and 11.

The Act aims to register and rehabilitate street vendors and save them from exploitation at the hands of enforcement officers. It also calls for proper rationing of urban streets and spaces.

In the three years since the process of vendor identification began, sites are yet to be approved by the town vending committee. The only development made in the last five months is that the civic body has issued identity cards to 200 of the 993 vendors under the Act.

In January this year, MC decided that to first implement the Act in Phase 7 as pilot, where as many as 139 vendors are registered. MC commissioner had even asked the agency that conducted the survey to mark the space in the parking areas, but the plan had fallen flat as market welfare association and area councillor of Phase 7 rejected the civic body’s plan.

However, municipal commissioner Kamal Kumar Garg said, “We wanted to start the pilot project in phase 7, but market welfare associations are opposing it. Now, we will be approaching GMADA to finalise the sites and land in Mohali belonging to them only.”

The agency that conducted the vendors’ identification survey had earmarked around 15 sites in Phases 10, 11, 7, 3B1 and 3B2, but GMADA refused, citing that these were prime locations.

IDENTIFICATION PROCESS STARTED IN 2015

As many as 993 vendors were identified in an MC survey that was initiated in 2015. The civic body had hired a private company to carry out the survey. Initially, the firm had identified at least 2,295 vendors, but the MC House found anomalies in the survey and ordered a fresh one. In 2017, the civic body had identified 993 moving and stationary vendors.

Phase 3B2 market welfare association president Jatinder Pal Singh said, “We have requested the authorities concerned on multiple instances to take action against illegal vendors, but nothing has been done so far. The parking lots are left with no space as vendors have encroached upon the area.”

The issue of encroachments is debated on in every House meeting, but in vain, he added.