CUTTACK: IT has been more than one-and-half years since the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) proposed to set up 12 model vending zones under the Mukhyamantri Karma Tatpara Abhiyan (MUKTA) scheme in order to streamline street vendors here, but the project remains a non-starter.
As per reports, there are more than 9,000 registered street vendors in Cuttack city. The CMC had planned to rehabilitate around 1,200 street vendors by constructing 12 model vending zones under MUKTA scheme.Accordingly, a detailed plan was prepared with proposed locations for setting up 12 model vending zones during a town vending committee meeting held in September 2021.
The model vending zones would have had several amenities including parking place, sitting facility, drinking water and toilets for both vendors and customers. The proposal was a part of the city’s decongestion plan which aims at evicting and relocating the street vendors encroaching the roads in the city.
However, there is no further progress in the plan though one-and-half year has already passed. While the project is yet to see the light of the day, funds sanctioned for the construction of the model vending zones is said to have been lying unutilised.
The number of street vendors is fast increasing thereby worsening traffic problem in the city. Though the CMC is carrying out eviction drive, the street vendors are found to have been reoccupying the same spots by the roadside due to lack of relocation and rehabilitation plan.
Commenting on the matter, CMC commissioner Nikhil Pavan Kalyan said the civic body would be constructing the proposed 12 model vending zones very soon.