NEW DELHI: To set the ball rolling for providing legal protection to street vendors and hawkers, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced the formation of 28 Town Vending Committees (TVC) to implement the Street Vending Act, 2014.
The TVCs which will grant legal status to street vendors will carry out a survey of the city’s street vendors and issue certificates of vending. The AAP government has directed the MCDs to hold meetings for all TVCs and initiate surveys within a week, to complete the task within a month.
The legalisation issue had been pending for almost four years with government and vendor unions slugging it out in court for the composition of the committees.
The Delhi MCD, the body to manage the number of hawkers, has only 12,000 registered vendors in 2016 leaving the rest of the vendors illegal and encroaching upon the footpaths making them inaccessible for the commuters.
The announcement of TVCs might provide some relief to them. 35-year-old Samina who sells tobacco products on a footpath says “In order to provide shelter to my kids and a roof on their head I sell all this. There is no other means for our livelihood”.
“Due to lack of legal status, many agencies have been harassing the street vendors for years. Apart from this, the general public has to face difficulties due to lack of cleanliness. Both of these problems will be resolved by organising the street vendors,” Kejriwal said.
Guided by the terms of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act passed by the parliament in May 2014, these TVCs will do a survey and provide certificates that will mention where the vendor will operate, goods sold by the operator, detailed description about the zone and location.
The permission to set up new markets and timings regulation for vending to ensure decongestion of public areas will also be given by the TVC. Vendors who have been displaced in the last few years can also apply to the Town Vending Committee.
“Street vendors are a lifeline. If street vendors are taken off roads even for a day, we will lose access to vegetables, milk, fruits and life will come to standstill” added Kejriwal.