Capital moots special zones for street vendors

Thiruvananthapuram: The city corporation is planning to establish vending zones in the city as part of rehabilitating street vendors. As a first step, the corporation is evicting unauthorized vendors, who had occupied footpaths and roadsides to sell wares, obstructing pedestrian movement.
Fifteen outlets selling food and other items were evicted along the Palayam-Vellayamblam stretch in a joint drive conducted by revenue and health wings of the city corporation on Thursday.

The corporation officials said that vending zones will first come up near Museum, Medical College, Palayam, Thampanoor and Chalai. As many as 1,880 vendors were identified in the survey conducted in 2018 and the list was approved by the council.

The second phase has identified 1,726 applications. The town vending committee has started processing applications from vendors for issuance of licence and ID card and 530 vendors, who were identified in the survey, have been issued ID cards. Authorization is issued based on police verification and scrutiny of related documents. Those who get rejected in the first phase of scrutiny are allowed to go through another round of application process.

Mayor V K Prasanth said that corporation officials have identified around 100 unauthorized street vendors who have set up stalls on footpaths in various stretches across the city.

“We have decided to issue licence and ID cards to the vendors whom we had identified under National Urban Livelihood Mission. The latest set of people, who have erected stalls without authorization, will not be allowed to do business blocking pedestrian paths. We are also identifying town vending zones, where authorized vendors can do business without causing any kind of hindrance to traffic or pedestrians,” said Prasanth. He said that vending zones would be incorporated in the master plan which will be prepared for city.

Mayor said that the eviction drive will be extended to other parts of the city as well. “We won’t be able to evict all street vendors from the city because some of them have been running business for a long time, however in case of recent vendors who have been identified, eviction will be implemented,” he added.

In 2014, the city corporation had launched ‘Suvidha’ to rehabilitate street vendors under Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project. Carts were distributed among selected beneficiaries on a cost-sharing basis. The project, however, did not proceed to second phase.

However, the officials are facing difficulties in identifying proper vending zones for lack of space. New spaces will be difficult to spot in a city, which is already reeling from congestion in commercial spaces. Palayam Rajan, chairman, town planning committee said that corporation will act only after taking street vendors into confidence.

“We have completed survey and other processes have begun. The vendors’ organization has already expressed their concerns with us and we will proceed only after due consultation with stake holders,” said Rajan.