Residents blame street vendors for congestion on roads in Patiala

Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 19

Traffic woes of city residents remain constant despite the Municipal Corporation’s repeated assurances of tackling the street vendor menace. The corporation’s plan to shift the street vendors is awaiting necessary approval like water supply and other facilities at designated spots to be provided by the engineering branch.

The Municipal Corporation had devised a plan to rehabilitate street vendors in order to decongest the city roads. The corporation hired a private consultant for implementation of the project in 2017. It allotted a tender for the purpose in 2018 and identified various new places in 2019. The corporation issued identity cards to vendors in 2020 but the work remained pending after the first batch of vendors was shifted from the old sabzi mandi of Ragho Majra to a new site in February last year.

Residents said, “The corporation has failed to complete the process. After five years of the current government, the city’s traffic condition due to the street vendors remains the same. People face issues in commuting at the time of protests. The area around Mata Kaushalya Hospital faces the brunt of traffic snarls regularly.”

Officials in the corporation say there is lack of political will. Requesting anonymity an insider said, “Earlier, the corporation managed to remove the street vendors from the Ragho Majra area in 2021 solely due to political will of councillors living in the area. Now no one cares about issues of the people.”

Officials of the land branch of the MC said, “We have written to the corporation to provide water and other facilities at designated spots, including near the city bus stand, DLF colony and the Tripuri market area. The project is going on”, Superintendent Surjit Singh said.

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