GMC (Guwahati Municipal Corporation) Fails To Set Up Vending Zones

GUWAHATI: The city is brimming with street vendors without proper instated zones which cause the vendors to spread haphazard all over, causing much inconvenience. The situation calls for the urgent need of official vending zones which the GMC (Guwahati Municipal Corporation) has failed to establish.

The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood & Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 mandates a survey of the street vendors in all the cities with proper registration and identification of locations to provide fixed vending zones to such vendors. The survey was completed in April 2015 but the provision of zones by the concerned authority was not. As per the survey, there were 7,183 street vendors at that point in time with approx 2,000 vegetable vendors 400 food vendors, 190 fish vendors, 80 meat vendors, more than 700 cloth vendors and counting still.

As per GMC sources, both the District Administration and GMC have been carrying out drives against street vendors to ensure cleanliness of the city along with ensuring that the streets remain congestion free from the menace of such vendors. However, the vendors themselves are not open to any temporary alternate suggestions about setting up their wares. They staged a protest demanding better location arrangements.

Wide protests have been staged by the vendors who were asked to vacate their vending spots and approached the Gauhati High with the issue. The Court had then asked the GMC to fix the vending zones at the earliest. In January 2018, GMC authorities announced six vending zones. However, the setting up of these vending zones is yet to materialize.

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