The rehabilitation programme for street vendors in Kochi, whose lives have been battered by the pandemic, will be ready by the end of the month.
The town vending committee of the Kochi Corporation, which met the other day, has decided to finalise the vending zones and approve the final list of street vendors, who are conducting business within the Corporation limits, by mid-August.
The civic body would adopt a humanitarian approach to the street vendors who had been hit hard by the economic crisis, said J. Sanilmon, chairman of the town planning committee.
The Corporation would not resort to the earlier practice of demolishing the makeshift structures set up by the traders and deny them livelihood options. Instead, it would chalk out plans to rehabilitate the traders considering their plight and the looming economic crisis, he said.
Incidentally, a major share of the income of the street vendors come from festival-related sales. This year, Muharram falls on August 19 and Thiruvonam on August 21. The continuous lockdown following the second COVID-19 wave and the weekend lockdowns have badly affected the street vendors in the city. The Corporation planned not to interrupt their business during the festivals, indicated civic authorities.
The civic body’s decision comes in the wake of the Kerala High Court setting a deadline for the rehabilitation programme of 2,916 persons identified as street vendors under the Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending Act. The Corporation had also given an undertaking that the town vending committee shall meet before August 12 for finalising the by-laws prepared for street vendors.
The High Court has directed the civic body to put up a final list of street vendors, as approved by the town vending committee, on its notice boards on or before August 12. There shall not be any delay in convening the meeting of the town vending committee and the publication of the final list, the court directed.
