Roadside vendors in Cuttack (file picture)

Cuttack, Aug. 17: The Orissa Khurda Utha Dokani Mahasangha has decided to intensify its agitation for creation of vending zones in the city. They had been protesting in front of Cuttack Municipal Corporation’s (CMC) headquarters for a month alleging “continued apathy” of the civic corporation to their demands.

The association, which has been spearheading the cause of 20,000 street vendors and hawkers in the city, had staged a demonstration on July 14 to protest against eviction operations undertaken by the CMC “without any option for rehabilitation”.

Livelihoods of nearly 700 families were allegedly affected by the eviction of hawkers and vendors from the city’s roadsides.

“We have been left with no option but to step up our agitation as nothing tangible has followed over the last month to address the issue of alternative settlement for roadside vendors,” Subash Singh, president of the Mahasangha, said on Tuesday.

“We have decided to intensify our agitation by organising rallies and blocking the CMC headquarters from September 1 as no work has started for construction of alternative vending zones despite assurances earlier given by the authorities,” Singh said.

The process of identification of land for creation of 18 vending zones in the city was completed during a visit by the State Assembly House Committee in October 2009. But the CMC has not yet been able to come up with any vending zone though foundation stone for construction was laid at Jobra on August 31, 2010.

Mayor Saumendra Ghosh said the Assembly’s Petition Committee led by Bishnu Das had reviewed the progress of creation of vending zones during a visit to the city on Saturday.

“We also aim to complete the creation of vending zones in 14 other locations by the end of this year,” Ghosh added.

On the other hand, Singh alleged that since January 2010, the CMC had been giving assurances to open four of the proposed 18 vending zones within a month.

The Mahasangh has been pressing for implementation of the National Policy for Urban Street Vendors, which envisages setting up of town vending committees with representatives of street vendors and other stakeholders for regulating street vending.

The policy envisages registration of street vendors with identity cards instead of the existing licensing policy and allocation of space to them by ward committees on the basis of the decision of the town vending committees.

In the policy document, the term urban vendor is inclusive of both traders and service providers, stationary as well as mobile vendors and incorporates all other local / regional specific terms used to describe them, such as hawker, pheriwalla, rehri-patri walla, footpath dukandars, sidewalk traders, and so on.