Mohali MC awaits allotment of vending sites from GMADA

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Mohali, January 1

The local Municipal Corporation (MC) is awaiting the allotment of vending zones, which have been identified by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) and where more than 2,500 vendors are to be allotted space.

Even though GMADA has approved seven of the eight proposed sites to relocate vendors, paving the way for the implementation of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act in the city, these sites were yet to the allotted to the civic body. The approval had come during a meeting between officials of GMADA and the MC on September 22 last year.

In October 2020, the GMADA had approved 14 sites which were identified in a joint survey it had conducted with the MC. However, the authority later reduced the number of sites to seven.

The civic body, which is to implement the Street Vendors Act, had been writing letters to the authority for the past 21 months for approval and possession of the sites.

Deputy Mayor Kuljit Singh Bedi said they had been writing to GMADA officials to allot at least five vending sites to the civic body so that vendors could be relocated.

“We are hopeful of getting possession soon, which will help us begin the process to rehabilitate vendors,” he added.

Implementation of the Street Vendors’ Act has been hanging fire since 2015 when the MC had first ordered a survey to identify street vendors in the city.

The Act is aimed at registering and rehabilitating street vendors, and also safeguarding them against exploitation at the hands of enforcement officers. It also calls for proper rationing of urban streets and spaces.

Illegal vendors dot several main markets of the city, including those in Phases 7, 3B1, 3B2, 9, 10 and 11.

A private firm hired by the MC to carry out the survey had initially shortlisted 2,295 vendors, but the MC House found gaps in the survey and ordered to carry out the exercise again. In 2017, the civic body concluded there were 993 moving and stationary vendors, a number that has since multiplied.

In January last year, the MC had decided to implement the Act first in Phase 7, where as many as 139 vendors are registered. The MC Commissioner had even asked the agency that conducted the survey to mark vending space in the parking areas, but the plan had fallen flat following objections by the market welfare association and the area councillor.

Thereon, the MC issued identity cards to 200 of the 993 vendors, but they were never given designated spaces to operate.