Chennai: The Greater Chennai corporation has come in for criticism from street vendors who slammed the local body for failing to form a town vending committee (TVC) before the code of conduct was enforced in the state.
Though the state government had on November 2, 2015m notified the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, and gave the local body six months during which it was supposed to enumerate vendors and set up the panel, all that the civic body did was to put the task on the backburner. According to small vendors associations, cases related to street vending pending before the Madras high court have been put on hold until a TVC is formed.
“There is no other forum for us to discuss our grievances. The corporation officials consider it as additional work for them. Maybe, it is because there is no income to be had from this committee that they are delaying. This has gone on for so long that it is no better than the tale of Sindbad,” opined B. Karunanidhi, general secretary, Chennai small vendors federation. Corporation officials cited problems for the delay. “Right through November and December, we were involved in rain-related work. There was also a change in leadership later.
Between collecting taxes, laying roads and other routine, there is no time for us to conduct survey,” said an official. The survey of street vendors is crucial to reducing congestion in several areas in the city, including T Nagar and George Town. The former has been selected by the local body to implement its Smart City proposal. One section of vendors fears that even if the TVC is formed, they may still be robbed off a representation on board the committee. M. Gopi, a small vendor in Moore Market, referred to how the Justice Ramamurthy panel for regulating hawkers had no vendor representation on board despite clear directions to the contrary.
Yet, there are vendors like Anbuvendan who think that the corporation was acting in cohorts with big business promoters and is of the opinion that a new TVC will change nothing. Anbuvendan was evicted by police and corporation authorities near Taramani despite a court order prohibiting shifting of vendors before TVC formation.
“Right now, they will not evict vendors because it will have an adverse effect on elections. But it won’t make a difference because whichever government is in power, officials have shown neglect in this cause. The Mayor may change, the council may change, but officials are the same,” he said.
