Maken, NGO move HC over street vendors

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Ajay Maken and two NGOs on Friday approached the Delhi High Court alleging that capital’s central and south civic bodies were evicting

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Ajay Maken and two NGOs on Friday approached the Delhi High Court alleging that capital’s central and south civic bodies were evicting street vendors from hawking zones since Thursday.

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The plea said since the high court on October 5 ordered that street vendors cannot sell their wares in areas which were identified as non-hawking zones, authorities have started throwing out people even from hawking zones like Rajiv Chowk, Indira Chowk and Lajpat Nagar.

The applicants have sought that New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and other municipal corporations be restrained from taking any coercive action against street vendors in any area, which has not been declared as a ‘no-vending zone’ under the earlier scheme.

The applicants’ counsel told the court that asp era 2012 list of vending zone sin NDMC areas, Rajiv Chowk and Indira Chowk were squatting or hawking zones.

They said that street vendors were being removed even from Palika Bazaar where they have been selling their wares for the last several decades.

ND MC, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, said it had removed only 60 persons from its area and that too as per orders of another bench of the high court.

The high court has listed the matter for hearing on October 19.