Delhi: East civic body to make health trade licence must for street food vendors

With this initiative, street vendors will be brought under the licence ambit and the corporation will be able to earn some revenue as well

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) will soon roll out a policy, making it mandatory for street food vendors to obtain health trade licences, failing which they will not be allowed operate within the corporation’s jurisdiction.

Under phase one of the street vendors survey, EDMC has identified 10,039 vendors in Shahdara south zone and 9,604 in Shahdara north zone. (HT Archive)

Granting anticipatory approval to the policy on Tuesday, mayor Shyam Sunder Agarwal said the zonal town vending committees have surveyed and selected street vendors — in Shahdara north and south — who will be allotted sites by the civic body, but only on completion of all due processes needed to obtain the health trade licence.

The process, civic officials said, has been made more stringent by the public health department. “Street food vending will be allowed through hand-driven carts or other means as approved by the zone vending committee. The vending operations should not be restricting the right of way of pedestrians or motorists and it should not cause nuisance, littering, noise pollution or any obstruction to the traffic flow,” Aggarwal said, adding that the operational hours will be restricted of such vendors will be from 8am to 10pm.

Aggrawal said the licensee will mandatorily undergo training under the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) or an equivalent skill development programmme. Last week, the EDMC launched a skill development programme for 2,500 street vendors, in association with the Union skill development and entrepreneurship ministry. The new health licence will cost ₹3,750 a year and the vendor will be able to take a licence for up to three years.

Commissioner Vikas Anand said under the new licence regime, a vendor will not be allowed to have single use plastic and thermocol items. “If the licensee or other food handlers are suffering from any infectious disease, they shall not be permitted to work until they recover. Proper arrangements for collection of waste will be made by the licensee, as per the waste management rules and the people handling food should be appropriately vaccinated against Covid-19,” he said.

Anand said with this initiative, street vendors will be brought under the licence ambit and the corporation will be able to earn some revenue as well. Under phase one of the street vendors survey, EDMC has identified 10,039 vendors in Shahdara South zone and 9,604 in Shahdara North zone.

A public health department official said street food vendors will be a subset of people identified in this survey. “We will allocate space to these street food vendors and then the new licence policy will be rolled out,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

Arvind Singh, national convener of NASVI (National Association of Street Vendors) said street vendors are governed by the Food Safety Act and the Street Vending Act; the corporation should not make another health trade licence mandatory for them. “It is illegal to demand a new licence from street food vendors. This will lead to more harassment. When the certificate of vending is already being issued by the corporation and the food safety officials are issuing the FSSAI licences, why does the civic body want to establish a parallel process,” Singh asked.

He said NASVI is also encouraging vendors to get vaccinated but the corporation should not interfere by linking it with their livelihood.