Vendor policy: Unhappy shop owners will protest during CM’s visit next week

Shop owners want street vendors relocated to a designated area away from the markets

About 200 shop owners of Sector 14 market observed a shutdown for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, as a mark of their continued protest against the new street vends set up in and around the market by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG).

Shop owners in Huda markets downed shutter on Tuesday demanding that the administration revisits its policy on street vendors. (Parveen Kumar/HT FILE)

The shop owners, who have the support of sector residents, said the district administration did not send any official to them to initiate a dialogue and end the protest.

“We had informed the district administration of the shutdown on Monday. We observed the shutdown on Tuesday in sectors 4, 7, 31 and 56. These markets are all facing a similar problem. We decided to continue the shutdown for a second day on Wednesday so that the administration takes note of our resentment. We are sorry that the administration has ignored our shutdown,” said Umesh Mudgil, a shop owner, adding that this is not end of the protest.

The MCG, in accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines of 2009, is resettling street vendorsin designated spots within Huda markets. To that end, the MCG designed carts and kiosks that a vendor can buy on instalments and came up with a street vending policy. The policy has met with resistance from various sectors in the past four to five months.

Surender Khatana, a shop owner, said, “Setting up new street vends bang in front of our shops is illegal. We have requested the administration to remove the encroachments from the market as there no space available for shoppers and pedestrians. But the MCG instead of doing that has added to our woes. We will not sit quiet. We will protest when the chief minister (CM) Manohar Lal Khattar visits Gurgaon next week.”

Read I Gurgaon: Want physical survey of space for street vendors, say shop owners

The residents and shop owners of the market are also consulting other sectors to join them in the protest and take the fight to the next level.

Dinesh Aggarwal, president of RWA Sector 14, said, “We have already filed a petition against the MCG in Punjab and Haryana high court. We are going to Chandigarh to attend the hearing tomorrow. There are five to six Huda markets which are at present affected by the new vendor policy. We have spent life’s savings to buy shops through the auction from the Huda and there cannot be another vending zone in the same vicinity.”

MCG Commissioner V Umashankar said, “We will file our replies in the high court.”