Process to identify zones for street vendors begins

The inter-agency committee comprises officials from municipal corporation, traffic police, PWD and officials from revenue department.

The three municipal corporations have initiated the process to identify vending zones by constituting inter-departmental committees in the second phase of their vendor identification survey exercise, officials aware of the matter said.

Traders have said that new vendors should not be accounted for in the fresh survey by civic bodies. ( Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

The inter-agency committee comprises officials from municipal corporation, traffic police, PWD and officials from revenue department. A South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) official overseeing the formulation of vending plan process said that a committee with representatives from all agencies, town planning department, street vendors and subject experts has been formed in each administrative zone with the deputy commissioner at its head. “These committees will do the ground work to identify potential vending zones which can later be notified at subsequent stage,” the official said.

A similar order has been issued by other two civic bodies. “It is hereby ordered to constitute one committee each for Shahdara South and Shahadra North zones to undertake preparation of draft plan for street vending as envisaged under the section 21 of the Street vendors act (2014) and principles of Delhi street vendors protection of livelihood and regulations of street vending scheme,” an order by additional deputy commissioner of the east corporation said.

An EDMC official explained that the committees have been formed based on the directions of Delhi high court.

Over the last six months, the court has ordered eviction of street vendors in major markets including Connaught place, Chandni Chowk, Sarojini Nagar, Nehru Place among other sites. National Association of Street Vendors in India (NASVI) has argued that the thousands of vendors have been displaced even though no new vending zones have been notified.

Arbind Singh, who is the national coordinator for NASVI said that on the one hand current set of TVCs are not empowered to mark vending zones while at the same the evictions are being carried out unhindered. “How can evictions take place based on the no-vending zones announced two decades back when parliament’s act on the matter has been passed on the matter in 2014. The ground realities of public space has completely changed in the last 15 years,” he added.

Nitin Gupta, president of Kamala Nagar traders’ association, said they are not against the old street vendors in the market but the new ones cannot be included in the survey. “The whole market will be taken over by the vendors. Even when part of pedestrianisation plan was implemented in 2019, the space on the street was taken over by new vendors. Every market has a limited space and capacity,” he argued.

Sanjay Bhargava, who heads Chandni Chowk Sarv Vyapar Mandal said Chandni Chowk had been declared no vending zone in 2000. “More than 580 vendors were relocated to other areas in city zone in 2000. Even the pedestrianisation scheme does not have provision of hawking areas in this stretch. Our stand is that no vendors should be surveyed in this no hawking zone,” he added.

Bhargava said that capacity of many markets has been breached by the street vendors and MPD 2021 mandates that these activities cant be allowed in the right of way (ROW). “The government should make schemes to allow street vending after-market operation hours and open spaces like maidans,” he argued.

The Street Vendors Act estimates street vendors and hawkers to reasonably constitute 2.5% of the population of a city. As per a conservative estimate, there are around 500,000 street vendors in the city. But, only 100,000 has been identified.