In a first, the municipal corporation (MC) will videograph its enforcement drives against illegal vendors. The move comes two days after the Punjab and Haryana high court directed the MC to remove the unregistered vendors within on month.
Special commissioner Sanjay Jha, who heads the town vending department, said, “A videography team will accompany the enforcement teams during the drive against illegal vendors.The violations of registered vendors will also be captured.”
Jha said, “The video recordings will ensure more transparency in MC as the recordings will be evaluated daily. If anyone raises an issue with the MC drive, it can be verified and checked throughly.”
Sources said, the move will also put pressure on the field officers of the corporation who are often accused of overlooking encroachments in the city. Some even blame the nexus between the MC and illegal vendors for presence of latter in large numbers despite MC allowing only 9,300 people to work as vendors in Chandigarh. The officials were also selected randomly for the enforcement teams constituted on Thursday.
Jha said, “MC will focus on critical areas, where there are large number of unregistered vendors, including Sector 15, 17, 22, 19, 41, Manimajra, Ramdarbar and Bapudham among others.”
{{/usCountry}}Jha said, “MC will focus on critical areas, where there are large number of unregistered vendors, including Sector 15, 17, 22, 19, 41, Manimajra, Ramdarbar and Bapudham among others.”
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, MC has clarified to its enforcement staff that vendors’ licence is non-transferable and can’t be used by anyone else. All those vendors will be considered unauthorised who don’t possess the license issued by MC.
“More than one vendor using same license is illegal and such cases need to be dealt strongly,” said an official.