Review allocation of vending sites, Chandigarh MC told

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 28

Facing a flak over “wrong allocation” of sites to vendors, the UT Administration today directed the Municipal Corporation (MC) to review the vending zones in the city.

UT Adviser Dharam Pal said the MC Commissioner had been directed to review the allocation of vending sites so that it could help in increasing the income of the vendors.

Apart from “no vending zones” like Sector 17, all other sites in the city would be explored for resettlement of the vendors. At present, there are 46 earmarked street vending zones in the city and the UT Urban Planning Department had recently allowed the MC to set up 15 new vending zones to resettle nearly 1,500 street vendors in the city.

The new vending zones have been identified in Sector 19, 20, 24, 41, 45 and 52, Ram Darbar, Mani Majra and Mauli Jagran. Of these areas, the maximum vendors will be resettled in Ram Darbar, Mani Majra and Mauli Jagran.

Earlier, under the policy of resettling street vendors from city markets, the MC, with the assistance of the Administration, had created vending sites across the city. The street vendors from different markets, particularly from no-vending zones, were moved to these sites. Most vendors complained that the financial viability of these sites remained poor.

In some cases, the vendors even refused to move to the new zones as they contended that there was little or no potential of income generation in these zones. Around 2,000 street vendors have not taken possession of the vending spaces allotted to them.

More income for vendors on mind

UT Adviser Dharam Pal said the MC Commissioner had been directed to review the allocation of vending sites so that it could help in increasing the income of vendors. Apart from “no vending zones” like Sector 17, all other sites in the city would be explored for resettlement of the vendors.