BENGALURU: With an aim of having designated vendor zones in the city, the Karnataka High Court has asked the BBMP to distribute ID cards to surveyed street vendors before February 21. The order comes following a petition filed by S Babu, president of Bengaluru Zilla Beedhi Vyapari Sanghatanegala Okkuta (Bengaluru Street Vendors Association). The High Court on Wednesday said if identity cards were not issued within four weeks, the officers in charge will have to pay `1,000 for each day of delay.
Babu, a street vendor in Vijayanagar, had filed a writ petition in 2016 seeking a survey by the BBMP as well as the issuance of identity cards to street vendors to assure them a harassment-free environment to earn their livelihood. In August 2017, the High Court had sought a status report from the BBMP about the pending survey and disbursal of identity cards to vendors. After this, BBMP conducted a survey of street vendors between September and October. The Palike has covered around 25,000 vendors, while several others have been left out.
Street vendors in the city fear that since the elections and the code of conduct are around the corner, they will lose out on the opportunity to avail the ID cards as the government will not be able to undertake any welfare projects. The BBMP should conduct another round of the survey, said Okkuta members.
RULES YET TO BE FRAMED
According to the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, street vending is legal and anyone has the right to vend. Unless the local municipal corporation conducts a survey and issues ID cards to the vendors, no one can be evicted.
But for that to happen, a town vending committee has to be constituted with 40 percent members drawn from street vendors themselves. Street vendors have the right to approach a dispute redressal forum and the right for a new site or area upon relocation. They also have the right to be part of the selection of the relocation site.
Clifton Rozario, state general secretary, All India Central Council of Trade Unions, said, “Though the Act was passed in 2014, the rules are yet to be framed. The draft rules were submitted by a committee one-and-a-half years ago. The government has to invite objections before including it in the Gazette. Once the rules are notified, they can be enforced. But Section 27 of the Act, which says the police cannot harass vendors, can be evoked by the vendors.”
Though there are around three to five lakh vendors in the city, the BBMP has only surveyed vendors in thousands, said Rozario. “The survey has been done in a very arbitrary manner. There is lack of political will to notify the rules,” he said.
The Act provides for designated vending zones, but a few vendors are apprehensive about it as they may not get the vending zone they want. Under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM), similar rights are provided to the vendors too.
Unfortunately, a majority of the vendors do not know about the Act as the Kannada version of the Act was released only in 2015.