CHENNAI: The city corporation has passed a resolution to constitute zone-level town vending committees with the concerned regional deputy commissioner as the chairperson, based on a Madras High Court order in March this year. The HC had directed to constitute zonal level vending committees to fast-track the demarcation of vending and non-vending zones.
The committees will comprise ACP (Law & Order), ACP (Traffic), a zonal executive engineer, six representatives of street vendors, a traders’ association representative, two representatives from NGOs and other community-based organisations, and one representative from the resident welfare association.
Elections for electing the six members among street vendors to the committees are to be held at the zonal level on June 26 from 9 am to 5 pm. The counting will be held the next day.
The city corporation earlier had a central 15-member town vending committee, headed by the corporation commissioner, constituted in 2023. This was after the high court dissolved the zone-level town vending committees constituted in 2018 for allegedly being formed in violation of the Street Vendors Act, 2014.
“The central committee could not provide adequate representation to the street vendors. Several vendors had asked for the zonal committees to be formed again so that there is a better chance of their issues being addressed,” Chennai Street Vendors Association president C Thiruvettai said. Through a survey, the corporation had registered 35,588 street vendors.