Despite facing several failures in an attempts to streamline the street vendors responsible for encroaching the major avenues of the Capital City, once again the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) after the Central government’s notification is gearing up to rationalize the system by constituting street vendors committee.
Notably, considering the social reforms of street sellers, the Supreme Court (SC) recently has asked all the Urban local Bodies (UlBs) to complete the certification tasks of all vendors and provide them with Identity Cards.
Taking into account the guidelines of the Apex Court, the Civic Body officials have completed the survey task of all vendors recently falling within the municipal jurisdiction. As per the records available with the Municipal Corporation as many as 6700 vendors have been identified. “Considering the decision of SC, it has been now made mandatory for all UlBs to keep the records of street vendors while taking up their social reforms issues, formulation of street vendors committee has been kept on top priority,” said Deputy Mayor Sanjiv Vijayawargia.
“The street vendors committee will have 28 members, 12 persons will be elected from among the street vendors group while 16 other persons will be chosen in the committee from different sections. The committee will be headed by Municipal Commissioner and only after unanimous decision of the committee members, now vendor zones at different place will be established,” added the Deputy Mayor.
Meanwhile, after the new regulation, the decision of the Civic Body that had earlier demarcated six separate vending zones within the municipal periphery now stands null and void. Notably, in April 2016, the bench of Chief Justice Virender Singh and Justice S Chandrashekhar ordered Ranchi police to shift vendors along MG Road to ensure smooth penetration of vehicles during the rushed hours.
Although even after the orders from Jharkhand High Court (HC), neither the Ranchi Traffic Police nor the civic body have been ever successful in clearing the street-side vendors along the stretch of MG Marg or at Kutchery road. Although several eviction notices have been issued, besides conducting regular drive yet no serious efforts have been made to relocate the evicted hawkers from the Municipal Corporation’s side.
Moreover, none of the street vendors ever goes at the selected sites of the RMC in the wake of rising concern of losing loyal customers. Ending the monopoly of the Civic Body that had earlier selected Jaipal Singh Stadium, Harmu Ground, Dhurwa Ground and other three prominent spots for vendors, now only the vendor committee members will decide the places considering the business prospect where the hawkers will sell their stuffs.
The notification also clearly states that no vendors will be allowed to sell their goods along the busiest routes. In addition, even after the formulation of street vendors committee that is likely to be constituted by the end of December 2017 as per the officials, the work of the vendors market at Jaipal Singh Stadium that has been lingering since long may create hurdle for RMC in the days to come in the implanting the plans.