Guwahati Municipal Corporation to set up 10 vending zones in city

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: GMC (Guwahati Municipal Corporation) has decided to set up ten vending zones in Guwahati. The civic body took such a decision six years back but failed to give that a shape due to various reasons.

Due to a lack of vending regulations, vendors use almost every street in Guwahati, leading to numerous problems, including traffic snarls. Markets get bob up under flyovers, footpaths, roadsides etc., under the very nose of the civic body. The vendors keep shifting to newer locations. The GMC that opts to look the other way sometimes carry out eviction drives. However, vendors reappear after a few days.

Of late, the civic body has decided to set up ten vending zones in the city. With the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood & Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 coming up, the civic body had formed a town vending committee headed by the GMC Commissioner. The was to select the sites for vending zones in Guwahati. The committee did select some locations like Borbari, Kachari, Ganeshguri, Bhangagarh, Uzan Bazar, Silpukhuri, Pan Bazar etc. However, frequent transfer of GMC Commissioner played a spoilsport. The civic body could not notify the selected sites for vending zones. The civic body decided to set up the vending zones at a meeting on Tuesday.

Last year, the civic body floated tenders for vending zones at Borbari and Pan Bazar. These two vending zones got funded by the National Urban Livelihood Mission. However, the works stopped soon after its start.

In 2015, the GMC spotted 7,183 street vendors in Guwahati after conducting a survey. However, the Assam State Vendors' Association claims that the Metropolitan city has over 40,000 vendors.

The association says that since there is an Act for the regulation and protection of vendors, the authorities should set up vending zones. "We also don't want to create a chaotic situation on streets. However, vending is our livelihood. Unless the GMC provides us vending zones, we have no way out," a source of the association said.

GMC sources say that most of the vendors want their vending zones in areas nearby their present locations. "We select sites for vending zones by considering various angles. There can't be any please-all formula. Within this year, the vending zones will come up in Guwahati. We are trying to streamline vending in Guwahati because it's a matter of their livelihood," a GMC official said.

Sources said that the public should also discourage roadside vending by not buying from them. However, everybody wants to get everything on their doorstep, and this encourages street vendors.

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