Several activists on Monday asked the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation to conduct a survey on street vendors, issue identity cards to them and take steps for their rehabilitation as per the National Vending Policy of 2004.
Addressing a press conference here, Fishermen’s Youth Welfare Association secretary Teddu Shankar, ARTD secretary P. Vasu, AITUC leader S.K. Rehman and others came down heavily on the GVMC for not implementing the GO Ms. No. 396 for issuing identity cards and setting up citizen-friendly vending zones.
Once zones were created, the registered vendors would be entitled for ration cards, medical benefits, and houses under the JNNURM.
The activists said unofficially the GVMC was claiming that the number of vendors was around 19,000 without conducting any survey. Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has already created 58 vending zones. As per draft Bill on street vending approved by the Union Cabinet on September 18, 2012, every State should have citizen-friendly vending zones. Instead, the GVMC and the traffic police were subjecting street vendors to lot of harassment, they alleged.