The Delhi Congress has decided to hold protest outside 12 zonal offices of three municipal bodies on October 13 in support of street vendors across the city. Addressing a Press conference, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken alleged due to poor and faulty planning, street vendors are being evicted ahead of festival season. He said that in the past three days alone, nearly 10,000 street vendors were illegally evicted despite orders from the Delhi High Court.
Maken said the poor street vendors were suffering because of the AAP Government as it has failed to fully implement the Street Vendors' (Protection of livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014. Because of the Government’s failure, the street vendors were not only facing harassment from various agencies, but also being illegally evicted, he added
Maken said when he was the Union Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation Minister in 2013, he had introduced the Street Vendors' (Protection of livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, which was passed in 2014 by the Congress-led UPA Government. He said in the Street Vendors’ Act, 2014, a clear provision had been made that without giving designated vending zones, the street vendors would not be evicted. He said the Town Vending Committees should be constituted to conduct a survey to identify the vending and non-vending zones.