Street vending project yet to take off

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 17

The much awaited street vending project is expected to get delayed by few months as the Municipal Corporation of Jalandhar is yet to confirm the sites for relocating vendors in the city.

It is pertinent to mention here that Darashaw and Company, the consultants for the project, had completed the survey in March last year. It had identified more than eight sites to relocate and rehabilitate over 12,014 vendors in all 60 wards.

However, even though a year has passed, the MCJ has not been able to approve the sites proposed in the survey. Earlier too, the survey got delayed as the MCJ was unable to provide information and documents related to the proposed land parcels to the consultants.

When contacted, Superintending Engineer B&R Kulvinder Singh said the proposed sites were facing some technical glitches which the department was trying to remove at the earliest. “Once begun, it will be a massive exercise to relocate street vendors at various places. To carry out the relocation smoothly, it is necessary that sites should be free from any controversy and so the delay has occurred,” said Singh.

He, however, said the consultants were arriving on Friday and they would soon be given approval to carry out the relocation of street vendors in a phased manner.

Benefits of plan

• Registration and licensing of street vendors will ensure proper placement of street vendors in the city and ease out traffic snarls and blockage of roads and parking bays in the city.
• Will ensure equal distribution of vendors in each ward. Presently, Ward No. 39 has the highest number of vendors at the Focal Point while some wards have less than 50 vendors.
• Vendors will be issued GPRS-enabled biometric identity cards that would ensure safety of city residents and felicitate home delivery of over 120 products which are presently being sold by street vendors in the city.
• The vendors being registered with the MC will become eligible for getting loans under the micro financing schemes, including MUDRA.
• The vendors will be relieved from the ‘Sarkari extortion racket’ and harassment by the traffic police.

Survey observations

As 12,014 street vendors were surveyed in 60 vending zones, many observations were made under the project.

• Seven of 60 wards comprise more than 50 per cent of street vendors while more than half the wards (with street vending stretches/ existing markets) have less than 100 street vendors.
• More than 90 per cent of the vendors are in the age-group of 15 to 59 years and more than 60 per cent of these are aged below 36 years.
• More than 75 per cent of vendor population has not been able to complete the high school education; this group also consists of vendors who are illiterate. Also, approximately less than 5 per cent of female participation is there in the overall vending activity.
• More than 60 per cent of migrant population is involved in street vending activity.
• 48 per cent of the total population studied consists of movable vendors. More than 100 types of goods being sold by vendors across the city, catering to various needs of diverse sections
• Almost half of the total vendors are earning from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per month