With civic body silent on zones, hawkers block roads in Hyderabad

The GHMC had promised to provide ID cards to all recognised hawkers but has not done so yet.

Update: 2016-12-26 19:26 GMT
A dedicated hawker zone has been proposed as Area Based Development (ABD) to avoid situations of haphazard commercial activity, resulting in congestion. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: The GHMC marked out hawkers zones under its street vending policy nearly three months ago, but traffic violations by hawkers are increasing year on year.

The civic body identified 5,782 street vendors, and details of 2,904 vendors were uploaded on the website of the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas. The city was to be divided to red zones where street vending is barred, green zones where it is allowed and special zones where street vending allowed in specified times.

The GHMC had promised to provide ID cards to all recognised hawkers but has not done so yet. The ID cards mention the streets where they are allowed to vend during peak and off-peak hours.

The GHMC had promised to provide skill upgradation training and self-employment opportunities. It also constituted town vending committees at the circle level in which 40 per cent were to be vendors, and 20 per cent each government employees, social activists, GHMC officials and corporators. With the civic body failing to implement the policy, hawkers crowd the roads in key areas like Koti, Sultan Bazaar, Abids, Lakdikapul, Charminar, Afzalgunj, Gudimalkapur, Mehdipatnam and Ameerpet. The traffic police books the vendors but the GHMC has not taken any action.

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