Cuttack Municipal Corporation plan for street vendors a non-starter

CUTTACK: The plan of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) for rehabilitation of street vendors has failed to take off due to lackadaisical attitude of the civic body authorities.  With CMC failing to implement the Odisha Street Vendor Scheme and Rules-2015 properly, street vending continues to be a persistent problem in the Millennium City. In recent years, the number of street vendors has gone up substantially in the city.

In April 2017, CMC had constituted the Town Vending Committee as part of implementation of the Odisha Street Vendor Scheme and Rules notified by the State Government in July, 2015. The panel, with the Municipal Commissioner as chairman, included the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic), members of Mahanagar Shanti Committee, councillors and three specially-nominated lawyers of the Traffic Management Committee and representatives of street vendors. 

The committee was to decide norms regarding relocation of street vendors including the place where they will be shifted, the shops to be allotted and the trade permitted in areas. 

Sources said after introduction of Odisha Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Scheme and Rules, the civic body had hired a private agency to carry out a survey and plan relocation and rehabilitation of the vendors.

The survey was undertaken in all the 59 Wards of CMC and as many as 3,463 street vendors were identified for biometric process by dividing them into three categories - stationary, peripatetic (travelling) and mobile.

As per rules, the identified street vendors were to be provided separate certificates of vending subject to certain terms and conditions and identity cards.  Those interested to continue vending were required to apply before the Town Vending Committee which would allot shops to eligible vendors.

However, the civic body is yet to provide identity cards to street vendors even after two years of their identification. This has delayed rehabilitation of street vendors, said sources.  CMC Commissioner Ananya Das said she would take necessary step for regulation, relocation and rehabilitation of street vendors after going through the details of the previous action and initiatives carried out by the civic body in this regard.