E-Paper
Despite revoked licences illegal vendors continue to operate in Chandigarh
Registered as well as unregistered vendors have been operating from unauthorised spaces across the city, occupying corridors, pavements, road berms and even parking lots
Despite the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) cancelling licences of 2,831 street vendors over unpaid fees, these vendors continue to occupy the sites and operate illegally throughout the city.
The MC had in December 2024 cancelled the licences of these street vendors for not paying vending fee even once since their registrations, thus, resulting in a total collective pending amount of a staggering ₹47 crore. The licences were cancelled after the vendors had failed to respond to a one-month ultimatum issued by the corporation.
As per MC officials, the 2,831 street vendors were allotted the vending sites across the city.
But despite the cancellation, the vendors continue to occupy the space illegally and continue to set up their vends, even on undesignated sites, due to civic body’s lack of enforcement.
“Our enforcement teams have been given clear instructions to vacate those sites and when vendors are removed from the location, they find illegal alternative spaces to set up their vends. Our teams are working in full swing to remove the encroachments and illegal vendors from the city,” officials said.
It is pertinent to mention that city councillors repeatedly raise concerns of mushrooming illegal vending that go unabated, despite MC having an enforcement wing.
Registered as well as unregistered vendors have been operating from unauthorised spaces across the city, occupying corridors, pavements, road berms and even parking lots. Not only this, unregistered vendors can be seen sitting at the Sector-17 Plaza, even when the sector has been declared a complete no-vending zone.
Sectors 1 to 6 and Sector 17 were declared no-vending zones in 2019 and only essential service providers are permitted to operate in these areas. Without being registered or paying any official licence fee to the corporation, such vendors are operating right under the nose of MC without any fear of the enforcement wing.
Only one-third vendors pay fee regularly
Chandigarh has 10,903 registered street vendors in all, divided into three categories - street, essential and non-essential, who were registered in a survey in 2016. They were allotted vending sites for five years and had to pay a monthly licence fee. Of these, only 3,595 are paying up their dues on a regular basis. As many as 7,308 registered street vendors owe a whopping ₹75 crore as fee to the civic body as of September 18, 2024, and as many as 2,831 vendors had not paid the vending fee even once.
