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First dedicated zone in Panchkula to rehabilitate 458 vendors within 3 months
Being set up at a cost of ₹1.5 crore, the one-acre market in Sector 19 is the largest vending cite in the city
The first street vending market of Panchkula coming up in Sector 19 will soon facilitate the rehabilitation of street vendors.
Recently, the Panchkula municipal corporation (MC) also acquired some authorised vending carts that will be allotted to the registered vendors once the vending market opens for business.
MC commissioner-cum-administrator Rajesh Jogpal said the vendor’s market at Sector 19 will be set up within three months. He said the civic body and Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) have already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the transfer of 850 vending sites from Sectors 2, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15 and 19 to the MC.
The foundation stone of the market, which is being developed at a cost of ₹1.5 crore was laid in March this year. “The market will come up on one-acre land provided by the HSVP, where about 458 stalls will be allocated to eligible vendors. Tenders have been placed for vending sites in other sectors, layout plan of which was also approved by the HSVP,” Jogpal added. The work on other vending sites will be initiated in a phased manner and the sites will be allotted through a draw of lots for eligible vendors who are on the survey list, he said.
As per the draft vending policy, a vendor has to submit police verification and pay the rent of the allotted site on a monthly basis. He/she cannot construct any permanent structure on the allotted space and it is his/her responsibility of maintaining the space. As per a survey conducted by the MC last year, there are over 2,700 street vendors in the city.
117 CHALLANS ISSUED IN TWO WEEKS
The enforcement team of the civic body and the HSVP have been carrying out drives to remove encroachments by vendors in parking spaces, on footpaths and outside shops in the city causing obstruction to traffic and pedestrian movement in various sectors.
As per the data received from the MC, over 117 challans have been issued to various vendors and shopkeepers for obstructing parking spaces in markets and on pavements outside shops and footpaths.
But the ground reality is that after such drives are conducted in the markets of Sectors 7, 9, 11, 15 and 20, the vendors return after the MC teams have left.
At a few places, encroachers have even threatened the enforcement teams and created hindrance in their way in absence of police force. MC commissioner Rajesh Jogpal had written to senior officials of various departments including the deputy commissioner, police department and the HSVP, last month, requesting appointment of a duty magistrate and for deployment of police personnel to remove encroachments in the city.
Jogpal said that as the law prevents removal of any vendors without carrying out a survey first and providing the eligible ones a designated site for vending, he had submitted before the Punjab and Haryana high court that they were not touching any of the street vendors as per the stand undertaken by the MC previously that ‘none of the street vendors shall be uprooted, unless they park their vehicles/rehris for carrying on their business at a place which is parking area or hinders traffic and pedestrian movement’.
