A couple of months ago there was talk of the authorities regulating the number of stalls and duration of the Sunday market held on the road adjoining the Parade Ground.
There was some interaction among officials of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun, police and the district administration on this issue but nothing concrete has been done so far to resolve the traffic congestion, disorder and littering among other problems resulting from the anomalies in the Sunday market. It is pertinent to mention here that earlier in October, after assuming charge as the senior superintendent of police of Dehradun, Sadanand Date had directed that the Sunday market should be held only from 6 am to 10 am in order to resolve the traffic congestion and disorder caused by it being held till past the afternoon.
Vendors strongly objected to restricting the Sunday market to four hours with some politicians from the ruling party supporting them. The Sunday market is also a revenue source for the MCD. With each stall owner in Sunday market paying `300 tax to the corporation for the day, it was pointed out that they would not be willing to pay this amount if they were allowed to ply their trade only for four hours. The municipal commissioner Nitin Singh Bhadauriya had then said that the corporation would soon call for a meet to be chaired over by the district magistrate and SSP to chalk out measures for resolving traffic congestion and other issues related to the Sunday market. Earlier, in the MCD board meeting in October the board members had acknowledged the need for a proper policy for regulating the Sunday market while also calling for steps to limit expansion of the Sunday market to other nearby roads considering traffic congestion and disorder being caused by it.
However, little has been done by the authorities so far with hundreds of stalls in the Sunday market causing major traffic congestion here. A few policemen are posted at lansdowne Chowk to monitor the situation but with shoppers on foot using a major space on the road, the resulting traffic congestion exacerbates air and noise pollution apart from being a continuing inconvenience for the public.