Finally, Street Vendors Act comes into effect in Mohali

The enforcing authority has failed to stop illegal vendors from operating from main markets in Phases 7, 3B1, 3B2, 9, 10, and 11

After three years of deliberating, the municipal corporation of Mohali has finally decided to implement the Street Vendors Act in the city.

The Mohali civic body is hopeful that the pilot project in Phase 7 will be executed in a month and serve as a model to be replicated in other major markets of the city. (HT FILE PHOTO)

In a meeting of the town vending committee held here on Friday, it was decided that the MC will first implement the Act in Phase 7 as pilot, where as many as 139 vendors are registered.

MC commissioner of Mohali Kamal Kumar Garg along with other officials of the civic body also visited the site and decided that vendors will be placed at the back of the market in the parking lot.

The MC commissioner has asked the agency that conducted the survey to mark the space in the parking areas. “We will start from Phase 7 as pilot project and place the vendors at the back of the Phase 7 market in the parking area. We will again have a meeting on January 23 and we are hopeful that implementation will be done in Phase 7 within a month, which will be followed by other markets,” he said.

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 in this regard made in last five months is that the civic body has issued identity cards to 200 vendors of the total of 993 under the Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending Act, 2014.

The agency that conducted the vendors’ identification survey had earmarked around 15 sites in Phases 10,11, 7, 3B1 and 3B2, but a refusal came from the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) citing that these were prime locations.

The enforcing authority has failed to stop the illegal vendors from operating from main markets of the city. The worst-hit areas are Phases 7, 3B1, 3B2, 9, 10, and 11.

About licences, the official said those would be issued once the vending sites are finalised.

IDENTIFICATION PROCESS STARTED IN 2015

At least 993 vendors were identified in an MC survey that was initiated in the year 2015. The Mohali 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.