Over 22,000 street vendors to get licence to operate in Chandigarh
The process to identify street vendors for licences is complete, and 22,214 vendors in Chandigarh will get legal status next month. The MC is now identifying vending zones, that is, designated places where they can carry out their trade.
The process to identify street vendors for licences is complete, and 22,214 vendors in Chandigarh will get legal status next month. The MC is now identifying vending zones, that is, designated places where they can carry out their trade.
The survey, under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, was completed last week.
Parveen Chaudhary, CEO, Haryana Nav Yuvak Kala Sangam, the agency conducting the survey, said, “We have sent a pilot project to the UT chief architect for approval, after which we will go ahead with forming vending zones. We hope that licences are given by mid-October.”
Numbers up
HT had highlighted how, with the survey underway since July 18, several new vendors had arrived in the city in a bid to get themselves registered for licences. A survey by the MC’s anti-encroachment enforcement department in 2012 had put the number at 7,500.
How was the figure arrived at? Mayor Arun Sood said, “The figure of 22,214 is final after we checked their (vendors’) last challan list and Aadhaar cards, and also got them photographed.”
Why explains the spike? “Perhaps, the MC had not taken the entire city into account in that survey. Anyway, the next survey will be after five years.”
Who’s picked?
1) Under the Act, a vendor should have attained the age of 14 and not be engaged in a regular public or private-sector job
2) No vendor can operate from more than one site and should not be into the business of selling tobacco, cigarettes, cut fruits, meat or prohibited items, the law adds
3) Vends or stalls are not allowed near hospitals, religious places, educational institutes and fire stations
4) No vends also on roadside, cycle tracks, footpaths, roundabouts and other places where they may cause traffic snarls or health hazards
5) Fee? Rs 500-1,500 a month, depending on the category and the place of vend
SAS Nagar counts 2,295 vendors, councillors press for fresh survey
SAS Nagar: Hardly a tenth of Chandigarh, 2,295 vendors have so far been identified for licences in SAS Nagar in a survey by a private company engaged by the civic body. But councillors want a revision.
“The survey is not clear about who are the vendors and since when they are operating,” said councillor Kuljeet Singh Bedi, demanding a resurvey. “In phase 3B2, the survey has listed 235 vendors but there are not more than 100,” he claimed.
“Many families have put up stalls in different areas so they have been counted multiple times,” said Arun Sharma, another councuillor. The firm has charged Rs 9.5 lakh. MC commissioner Rajesh Dhiman said Aadhaar linking is being done now “as councillors demanded”. In Panchkula, the process has not yet started.
