The National Association of Street Vendors of Delhi (NASVI) on Friday held protests in several parts of the city over the issues of pending street vendor surveys and discrepancies in certificates issued to vendors.
NASVI’s Advocacy Manager Richa Sinha said the Certificate of Vending (CoV) issued by Delhi’s three municipal corporations – North, South and East – “does not clearly state the site of vending”.
‘Increased harassment’
“MCD went back on its point and said that the CoVs were temporary. There are other problems such as there is no explicit mention of the vending category and the type of vending allowed. This has increased harassment of vendors by officials as the certificates are unclear,” Ms Sinha said, adding that protests were held outside the offices of six regional deputy commissioners.
NASVI said in a press note, the Town Vending Committee (TVC) – which oversees the survey of street vendors – had not conducted the survey for Lajpat Nagar, Nehru Place and other areas despite crossing the deadline.
“From time to time the offices of the Assistant Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner of the Zone have hijacked the functioning of the Zonal TVC. Even after the order of the High Court of Delhi to conduct an honest survey of Lajpat Nagar and Nehru Place markets, the zonal office has deliberately not complied, leaving vendors helpless and vulnerable,” the press note read.
As per the data provided by the Delhi Street Hawkers Survey conducted by the government till December 10, 76,301 hawkers have been identified across the city and 61,444 have been approved.
The Delhi government had decided to extend the survey period till December 7 to identify more street vendors after several appeals from municipal councilors and unions of street vendors.
Responding to claims that the vending certificates remain unclear, a senior civic body official said that “a “post-TVC” would be constituted in the coming year, after which the site of vending would be identified.
South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Leader of Opposition Prem Chauhan said, “Due to pressure from the Delhi government, the BJP-led MCD conducted the survey and issued the vending certificates, but they did not allot the vending sites as the certificate exercise was a sham.” of Aam Aadmi Party.