After lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung asked the civic bodies to clear Delhi's streets of all encroachments on pavements and footpaths, the civic bodies have given a week long time to the Delhi Government to take a final decision on Street Vendors Policy pending with them since last year.
The BJP-governed-MCD has warned the Delhi Government to begin implementation process of their draft policy as approved if Government fails to respond on the issue.
As lt-Governor has asked the civic bodies to remove encroachment on pavements and footpaths from vendors, the later have given a week time to the Delhi government to take a final call on Street Vendors' Policy pending for the last few months.
The Corporations argued that despite sending the policy draft to the State Government earlier, no initiative has been initiated to notify it. Unnecessary delay from the Government side has affected lakhs of street vendors' families and the current situation is that many of them are at the stage of starvation. The crisis has deepened after Jung's initiative to "clear all the national Capital footpaths of street vendors."
"After a recent order, the families of street vendors are in fear. They firmly believe that the Corporations are behind the mess while the fact is that the agencies had issued a circular last year stating that no street vendor shall be evicted till notifying of the new policy. Now when the Government is not willing to address this issue, we will take sou moto action," said Aashish Sood, leader of the House of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), adding that, they will sit with the stakeholders to discuss future course of action.
The leader said after conducting a detailed survey, identification of vending zones will be made, certificate of registration will be given and identity card will be issued to the vendors. "We have written them to respond with in a week so we could work jointly. If no response comes, we will go alone to protect interest of the street vendors," he added.
The l-G's office had said, "The pedestrians are the most vulnerable category on Delhi roads. We need to work concertedly to offer safe and user friendly transit to them on Delhi's footpaths."
He had directed all civic agencies as also the PWD and the Delhi Police to identify all such road stretches where footpaths need to be freed from hindrances to make them usable for pedestrians in their respective areas, in two weeks time.