Gurgaon Sector 56 retailers oppose MCG hawker zone

The shopkeepers association is alleging that the MCG is encroaching upon the parking area to set up the hawking zone.

The shopkeepers of Sector 56 Huda market are planning to go on strike against the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Gururgram (MCG) hawker
zone alleging that the civic
body is encroaching upon the parking area.

Sector 56 Huda market is among the 23 hawker zones identified by the MCG across the city. The civic body has already set up vendor carts at the market. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

The market association held a meeting on Tuesday morning and decided to oppose the installation of carts at the parking area. They have threatened to shut the market if their demand is not met.

The market association has given an ultimatum of 30 days to the MCG, police department and traffic police to scrap the hawker zone plan from the Huda market. The association plans to file a petition in the high court if action is not taken within a month.

“The association and shopkeepers of Sector 56 market will not permit any illegal encroachment by the MCG to operate in our market, violating the Supreme Court guidelines. Why is the MCG hell bent on encroaching upon a market land? The contractor of the cart market is interested only in our market area as it is an existing market. He is not bothered that it will destroy the business of existing shopkeepers,” Lt Col (retd) Raghbir Singh, president of the market association, said.

The association members claimed it is clearly mentioned in an SC judgment that there should be no hawking within 150 metres of any municipal markets. In this case, the distance would be hardly 50 metres, the said.

The shopkeepers claimed the market also needs toilets, garbage collection facility, sweepers, roads and lighting.

“Parking vehicles is already a challenge and who will visit the market if they encroach upon the vacant space too? People coming to the market have to face many problems while entering the market with vehicles. The situation becomes difficult during weekends, and with the upcoming hawker zone, the situation will get worse,” Sanjay Parmar, a shopkeeper, said.

Another shopkeeper Shyam Kumar said, “We have established our shops with so much effort and with the hawker zone coming up, business will suffer.”

The MCG has identified around 23 hawker zones across the city. The MCG, on the direction of the Punjab and Haryana high court, had recently carried out a survey and identified street vendors who are to be relocated across 35 wards.

Vivek Kalia, joint commissioner, MCG, said, “We are regulating the street vendors of the city by providing them a place to operate their business. There was a long pending demand for this. This initiative does not pose any threat to other shopkeepers.”

The project was initiated after the MCG formed a town vending committee to earmark vending or hawking zones in the city and implement the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2015.