Street vendors’ policy shelved

HYDERABAD: The GHMC has put the street vending policy, first announced in 2014, in cold storage. The GHMC had announced the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood & Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014 which was to be implement by October 2.

The policy was to demark vending zones, which would ensure safety of vendors and minimise traffic snarls on arterial stretches. Officials now have been maintaining silence over its implementation.

The corporation had conducted a comprehensive survey and identified 1,63,073 vendors. In the last eight years, the corporation identified 138 free and partial vending zones.

It distributed 1,62,800 identity cards to vendors and formed 584 common interest groups (CIGs). Each circle would have three to five vending zones based on the area. He said that the city would have about 500 vending zones. As of now, the corporation has earmarked 138 vending zones.

Approximately, 20 town vending committees (TVC) were formed at the circle level, which would comprise 20 per cent of government officials, 40 per cent street vendors associations (of whom 30 per cent were to be women), 20 per cent each from community organisations and civil society.

The TVC were to ensure accommodation of identified street vendors, subject to a norm confirming to 2.5 per cent of the total town population, every street vendor should maintain civic amenities and public property in the zone. However, the civic body is yet to form 10 TVCs.

Asked about the failure to implement the street vending policy, officials claimed that Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL), local political leaders and traffic police had played spoilsport. They said while HMRL disturbed the location of vending zones, the traffic police did not agree with the remaining locations citing the possibility of traffic snarls.

Officials said that the corporation has distributed identity cards to vendors and constructed a few shops near Moosapet, Sultan Bazaar, Mettuguda and near Metro Rail stations but this did not yield results due to the location. He said that the shelters had ended up becoming hideouts for anti-social elements.

A senior GHMC official, requesting anonymity, said that the demarcation of street vending zones came to a grinding halt after three years. He said that the Urban Community Development (UCD) wing had been distracted by the pandemic and other developments. He claimed out that the GHMC had distributed identity cards to over 98 per cent of vendors.