There has been a debate for long on the livelihood of street vendors and the encroachment they cause.
The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, focuses on providing livelihood to vendors. It stipulates that street vendors be enumerated once in five years. Even Tamil Nadu has a scheme for street vendors, with norms similar to those of the 2014 Act.
On Saturday, the Greater Chennai Corporation published a list of 35,588 vendors. An official associated with the project said field workers went from street to street to count the vendors.
For pedestrians, pavements are the only safe space. With many vendors occupying this space, they feel deprived of their safety. At three points on St. Mary’s Road, vendors have piled up coconuts, blocking the pavement. When cars stop beside the pavement, pedestrians walk at the centre of the road.
There are problems at the pedestrian plaza at T. Nagar, just three years after it was opened. T. Nagar is now identified as a commercial area rather than a residential area. At least 20 shops have mushroomed at the pedestrian plaza, selling beads, garments, plastic knick-knacks, fruits, and flowers. Around the trees at the plaza, vendors spread out their wares. As a result, vehicles are parked haphazardly. Saravanan has been driving the battery-car at the plaza for the past eight months. He says it is a daily battle with vehicle-owners. “Sometimes, I complain to the police and they will help, but that is probably only once a day.”
Mylapore residents have resigned themselves to vendors spilling on the pavements. “There is a temporary relief when the police arrive, but the eviction serves no purpose because the vendors are back almost immediately,” says a long-time resident of Nadu Street.
According to the list of vendors published on Saturday, Zone 5 (Royapuram) has the largest number of vendors, with 7,896, followed by Zone 10 (Kodambakkam), with 5,704, and Zone 9 (Teynampet), with 4,309. T. Nagar has just 48 vendors.
“It amounts to encroachment if only vendors are operating in non-vending zones,” says an official. A new town vending committee will be elected on April 27. The committee, to be chaired by Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi, will re-examine the list of enumerated vendors, update the vending zones and even take petitions from residents about hindrances in their areas.
