East civic body to check growth of illegal markets

If you are among those who find weekly bazaars, which flout all norms and guidelines by encroaching upon roads, a nuisance, there is good news for you. Ritam Halder reports.

If you are among those who find weekly bazaars, which flout all norms and guidelines by encroaching upon roads, a nuisance, there is good news for you.

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The East Delhi Municipal Corporation is all set to use video evidence to keep check on illegal tehbazari. The weekly markets are a menace for residents, especially motorists, as the vendors encroach upon the roads, creating a traffic pandemonium of sorts. Housing societies, too, at times face the brunt as often vendors set up their wares right in front of the main gates.

According to standing committee chairman in the East corporation Sanjay Surjan, the civic body will start video documenting the number of shops in the various weekly markets in its jurisdiction so that they maintain a data of shopkeepers.

“We have taken up the matter after getting complaints from many RWAs across our jurisdiction. The licensing department was asked to do a survey, which surprisingly revealed that the shop number as abysmally low. The officials had reported 50-100 shops in each markets but the actual number touches 500 in most of these sites,” Surjan told Hindustan Times.

He said video recording of every market will help the corporation get the exact figures and take action accordingly. “In East Delhi, there are around 100 weekly markets, out of which only 65 run with proper authorisation. We will make sure no traffic chaos is caused because of these weekly markets, the actual revenue comes to the civic body’s coffers and no inconvenience is caused to the people,” Surjan said.

After the process is complete, all shopkeepers will be provided 6ft by 4ft space each to run their once-a-week establishment. According to a source in the East civic body, the traffic police and RWAs will also be involved in the process of making the weekly markets a facility and not a menace.

“The traffic police will be consulted so that busy areas which suffer frequent traffic snarls can be avoided. The RWAs will help us identify possible sites, which won’t cause inconvenience to the residents. One person will be provided just one shop spot in these markets,” the source said.