Thiruvananthapuram Corp neglecting street vendors

Thiruvananthapuram: Demarcation of vending zones in the state capital remains a far cry with the City Corporation turning a blind eye towards the implementation of much-hyped Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 in the state capital.

Apart from constituting a vendors committee and issuing of few ID cards, City Corporation had done nothing to implement the Street Vendors Act, which aims at regulating street vendors in public areas, providing certification for vending and protect vendors against unlawful eviction.

Seetha Dasan of Kerala Street Vendors Forum said that there is absolutely no progress in the implementation of the Act in the state capital. “It's been seven or eight months since the corporation called for a vendors committee meeting. The initial plan was to meet every month to discuss the progress of the implementation of the Act. Around 400 vendors were given IDs,” said Seetha Dasan.

Mayor V.K. Prasanth said that the number of street vendors is growing day by day.

“We are struggling to keep track of the growing number of vendors, a majority of them are from other states. We have given direction to our squad to remove all new vending kiosks come up in the past three mon-ths,” said Mr Prasanth.

He said that the civic body has initiated steps to carry out a site study at Medical College Hospital, East Fort and Museum. “We are planning to set up a model vending zone at East Fort over the Amayi-zhanchan Canal near Putharikandam Maidan,” Mayor said.

 He admitted that there is a delay in issuing ID cards for the vendors. “We are getting new applications every day and the delay is because its man-datory for the applicants to get the clearance from the respective police station for getting the vending IDs,” Mayor added.

Vendors faced with eviction

The district administration and city corporation have decided to evict new street vendors in the state capital to bring more control to the vending activities. According to civic authorities, street vendors are mushrooming in the state capital. Mayor V.K. Prasanth said that once the designated vending zones are declared, only vendors with a valid ID card will be allowed to do business.

Fort unit secretary of Kerala Street Vendors Forum Sangeetha V.S. Nair said that around 10 vendors near Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple had faced eviction.

“None of the authorities have intervened in the issue to give back their livelihood.  They asked us to remove the shops owing to security issues during the Prime Minister’s visit. After the visit, KSRTC didn’t give us the space for setting up the shops,” she said.

Mayor said that the issue will be taken up with the new Managing Director of KSRTC.