East Delhi residents will soon see municipal corporation officials at their local weekly markets as the civic body is cracking down on illegal vendors.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Vigilance Department will make video recordings of all weekly bazaars or haats since the number of vendors on the ground is more than those who licensed.
Tehebazari (street vending) licences go for as little as Rs.10 to Rs.50 per day. However, officials have admitted that not only are the number of bazaars higher, the number of vendors are much more than the legal ones.
“We have ordered all markets to be video-recorded. If the number of vendors is found to be more that what exists in our records, action will be taken against the guilty,” said EDMC Commissioner Amit Yadav. Starting next week, officials will survey all the bazaars to come up with an accurate record of vendors.
EDMC Mayor Harsh Deep Malhotra said the exercise will help the civic body ascertain whether there is any loss of revenue. According to officials, there are about 200 legal weekly bazaars and about 300 unauthorised ones. In each bazaar, there are about 50-100 legal vendors, while several hundreds end up setting up shop. The EDMC has been struggling to pay salaries as it going through a financial crisis. Though revenue from licences for weekly bazaars is not much, officials say there is potential to double it if all vendors are brought under the same.
