Tiruchi Corporation’s drive to issue identity (ID) cards to street vendors before the formation of a vending committee has been hampered by bogus and inaccurate entries, a vendors association has alleged.
“Though there has been much discussion about the regulation of street vendors in the city, the authorities are not taking care of the basic steps such as enrolment. As it is, we have at least 10,000 hawkers and street stall holders in the city, but only half that number have been registered,” A. Ansardeen, district secretary, Tiruchi district Street Vendors Association, told The Hindu.
In the first phase of the drive, 5,380 persons had received their identity cards by mid-July. However, street vendors claimed that rectifying errors in registrations could take several months.
When contacted, a senior Corporation official said the enumeration list had been kept “dynamic” at present since many street vendors tended to move into other sectors over time. “We have added over 900 new names to the list since July. Vendors must make a formal complaint in writing to us about corrections and bogus or wrong allocations, and we will carry out the changes. Once the vending committee is in place, complaints of this nature will be under their jurisdiction,” he said.
The official added that he was aware of the errors in data, but no formal complaints had been registered yet.
“We have been told that cards have been handed out to people such as auto-rickshaw drivers, who do not fit the category of street vendors. In many cases, even those who are not running businesses have obtained an ID card, especially in Gandhi Market area. At the same time, long-running street stalls have been completely left out. The data collection has been done in a haphazard manner,” claimed Mr. Ansardeen.
The Corporation’s 15-member vending committee will have six elected persons to represent the traders. An official at the level of the Assistant Commissioner has been appointed as a nodal officer to coordinate the distribution of identity cards and the formation of the vending committee. It is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
The move is meant to monitor the spread of hawker stalls in commercial areas, and ensure that they do not affect the flow of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The designation of shopping zones and timings would also be decided by the vending committee.
The process was to be completed by August, but has been stymied by errors in the ID cards. Earlier, street vendors had protested about the issue, and also pointed out the lack of security features such as biometric details and photographs of the vendors in the ID cards.
Published - September 10, 2024 06:52 pm IST
