A maiden survey of street vendors in the city, which is being cautiously welcomed, has left the community apprehensive that the civic body may go ahead with creating vending zones, displacing vendors from their present spots of business.
The survey is being carried out at the zonal level by zonal commissioners. In the south and west zones, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials have held multiple meetings with street vendors’ associations, asking them to enrol their members for the survey.
While the BBMP maintains that the survey was being carried out to provide benefits for the community, officials, who did not wish to be named, said the survey would, for the first time, give them data of street vendors, who will be issued ID cards. The officials said such ID cards will help the civic body to take action against illegal hawking.
Street vendors are apprehensive that issuing such ID cards would lead to creation of vending zones which the civic body wants.
“Those of us vending at places that the civic body or the traffic police don’t want us to, may be left out,” said Rangaswamy, a street vendor from Gandhinagar. He expressed fears that the survey and issuing of ID cards could be creation of vending zones in stealth.
The law
The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, which provides for vending zones within the city, also stipulates that a town vending committee, with over 40 per cent representation of street vendors, be formed, which will decide on vending zones.
“However, the State government is yet to notify rules for the Act, leaving the street vendors vulnerable to unilateral action by civic authorities and the traffic police,” said Lekha Adavi, an activist from the Bruhat Bengaluru Beedi Badi Vyapari Sanghatanagala Okkoota.
The rules are yet to be notified even after a committee submitted its report on framing the rules to the Directorate of Municipal Administration. However, this report too has been submitted with dissent notes from civil society members representing street vendors. Vinay Srinivasa, an activist with the okkoota and a member of the committee, said the rules focussed more on regulation of street vending rather than protection of rights of street vendors.
Ms. Adavi said they would oppose any move to create vending zones within the city, before the formation of the Town Vending Committee with 40 per cent of its members drawn from among street vendors.
