City BJP on job to separate the wheat from the chaff

Survey of footpath and roadside vendors of Guwahati underway

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Nov 27: To make Guwahati smart in true sense of the term, the Guwahati Metropolitan District Committee of the BJP has, as it says, been conducting a survey of city vendors. The survey, as the party unit claims, is going to separate the wheat from the chaff.     

Footpath and roadside vending in Guwahati has long been a mece – the mother of most of the problems afflicting Guwahati. The city committee of the ruling party in the State has sniffed that a large number of suspected people have been vending in footpaths and roadsides in Guwahati, by blending themselves with the local vendors. This is one of the reasons why the city committee of the ruling party in Assam wants to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Other purposes of the survey, according to the city committee of the party, are making the city free from pollution, haphazardness and transparent. Though Guwahati has been tagged as a smart city, it is not smart in true sense of the term. According to the committee, footpath and roadside vending leads to problems like traffic srls and accidents, besides putting impediments to pedestrians.                 

Talking to this reporter, BJP’s Guwahati Metropolitan District Committee president Bichitra rayan Kalita said: “We’re talking to all footpath and roadside vendors, noting their mes and whereabouts. There are also suspected people among the vendors. Besides making the city transparent, pollution free and free from haphazardness, the survey will let us know their way of life and living condition. This survey will also let us know as to how many local people and people from outside are vending in the city. We’ve nothing to do with what Dispur has done on vendors and vending in Guwahati. Our duty is to alyse the findings and let the State Government know this for necessary action. The survey will also let us know as to how the local vendors can be put into a system so as to make them secure in eking out their living.”

Kalita said: “Most of footpath and roadside vendors are deprived of benefits under various government schemes. This is because the vendors are ignorant of such benefits and the schemes also failed to reach them. The aim of this survey is to give pedestrians and other public in the city a succour from traffic srls and other problems.”        

The survey that began on Sunday will conclude within 15 days.