PCB to form town vending committee before it goes ahead with street vendor registration plan

Pune: The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) plans to form a town vending committee comprising elected board members before carrying out a hawker survey as per the directions

Pune: The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) plans to form a town vending committee comprising elected board members before carrying out a hawker survey as per the directions of the ministry of defence.

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Nineteen cantonment boards across the country have received directions from the defence ministry to carry out survey and complete the paper work for implementing the PM Swanidhi scheme for street vendors where a soft loan of Rs 10,000 is extended by the Centre to bona fide street vendors. There are over 1,000 hawkers in Pune Cantonment area.

PCB chief executive officer (CEO) Amit Kumar said that the board administration has to find out details of vending and non-vending zones in the area before it goes ahead with the task.

“Also, we have to form a town vending committee of whom CEO is the chairperson empowered to take a decision. The committee will be formed as per the central act,” he said.

The committee will play an important role in complying eligibility and criteria prescribed by the Cantonment Act. Also, the registered vendors will be eligible for availing benefits under the PM’s Street Vendors Atma Nirbhar Scheme. Under the centrally sponsored scheme, street vendors can avail Rs 10,000 one-time interest and guarantee-free bank loan with a provision to return in 12-month instalments and the vendors who repay the loan before one year will get seven per cent interest and digital payments of loan instalments will provide cashback between Rs 50 and Rs 100. The pilot project was launched in Ambala cantonment in August and is being replicated across nineteen cantonments of the country.

Under the central government project, smart cards given to registered street vendors will carry their name, address, age and photograph and also specify whether it is a stationary vendor or mobile vendor as registered, according to the cantonment administration records. The central government hopes that crowded public places, including busy roads and streets in cantonment areas, will be freed of congestion caused by the unregistered hawkers.

A major chunk of cantonment hawkers are located at Fashion Street, Kumbharbavdi vegetable market and Chhatrapati Shivaji Market. Similarly, during last one decade hawkers have occupied prime spaces on the road near Aurora towers, MG road and Bootee street. The Nuisance Prevention Squad (NPS) has proved to be less effective in curtailing the mushrooming growth of hawkers in the cantonment area.