The much awaited election for selecting the members of Town Vending Committee has been shelved for an indefinite time. After ensuring all preparations, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) had earlier released the notification to conduct this poll on June 13 but due to technical anomaly failed to hold election on scheduled date.
As per the statements of street vendors, names of six members were terminated from contesting election while six other withdrew their names. With no further option left with Municipal Corporation, the Civic Body cancelled the election till uncertain period.
Meanwhile, raising questions on Municipal Corporation’s intention for inducting the members (street vendors) in the first Town Vending Committee, General Secretary, Ranchi Footpath Hawkers Association, Anita Das on Saturday said that ever since all 12 members withdrew their names from the election, no one from RMC has approached them about what next will be done on this matter.
Also, Das said that due to sheer negligence of RMC, Samman Foundation --the firm doing the survey of street vendors for making the data available to the Civic Body has lost the data of the street vendors and is a major reason for cancelling the Town Vending Committee election.
“Nearly 5,735 vendors’ data was with the company. After the incident of name withdrawal, no one gave any satisfying response. Also, RMC officials despite knowing about the slip-up of ‘Samman Foundation’ are yet to take action against it. So far, no official meetings have been conducted with us.”
Das said that the matter is pending with Jharkhand High Court “The HC during a hearing on petition on June 11 had asked Samman Foundation to keep their stance in the next hearing,” she added.
Following the rules, the polling was to be conducted for inducting 12 eligible members from street vendors’ community in the committee. Over 30 members must be in the Town Vending Committee which includes government representatives, experts and RMC officials.
Notably, only on recommendation of Town Vending Committee members, shops are allotted to the street vendors in vendors’ complex. On the other hand, when contacted to know the stance of RMC, an official on anonymity said that besides releasing a fresh notification about the Town Vending Committee poll, they have no other option to resolve the issue. Notification release date is yet to be disclosed by the Municipal Corporation.