CUTTACK: The plan of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) for rehabilitation of street vendors has failed to take off due to lackadaisical attitude of authorities.With the corporation failing to implement the Odisha Street Vendor Scheme and Rules-2015 properly, street vending continues to be a persistent problem in the Millennium City.
As per report, the CMC had constituted a town vending committee in April 2017 as part of implementation of the rules notified by the State Government in July 2015. The committee, with the Municipal Commissioner as Chairman, included the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic), representatives from the Mahanagar Shanti Committee, councillors and three specially-nominated lawyer members of the Traffic Management Committee and street vendors’ representatives.
The panel was formed to decide norms regarding relocation of street vendors, including where they will be sent, what shops will be allowed and which trade will be permitted in which area.Accordingly, the civic body had engaged a private agency to undertake a survey for rehabilitation of street vendors. The survey was undertaken in all the 59 wards 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 the rule, the identified street vendors would have been provided with separate certificates of vending and identity cards. Those interested to continue vending were required to apply before the committee which would allot shops to eligible vendors. But 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.
Municipal Commissioner Ananya Das, however, said keeping aside the old survey report, the civic body has made a fresh survey in June and identified 1,919 street vendors in the city. Efforts are on to identify different vending zones in CDA and old areas of the city to relocate them, she added.