This story is from September 11, 2018

Chandigarh: Street vendors start killing Sector 19 market

Chandigarh: Street vendors start killing Sector 19 market
A parking lot
CHANDIGARH: Street vendors have occupied big sections of corridors, parking lots, and small roads at the Sector-19 Sadar Bazaar. It has ruined the systems of parking and traffic.
A large row of vendors sits on the mouth of the market, blocking the entire entrance with its jingbang of saleable items, leaving little space for vehicles, which now have to be parked opposite the street.
In the market opposite the Sector-19 police station, the room for the movement of vehicles on the arterial road is getting tighter and tighter, while encroachment has increased at a rapid rate. They have the parking lots and, soon, the vendors will grab even the road.
Sadar Bazaar shopkeeper Babla Singh told TOI: "These people (illegal vendors) have ruined our lives and killed this market. Their presence at the entrance of the shopping area has contributed to a lot of the traffic chaos outside and near the road. Cars and scooters have no room to enter. Visitors have to leave their vehicles outside because vendors have taken over most of the designated parking lot. It's a big mess."
A lot of shopkeepers said Sadar Bazaar was becoming the next Shastri Market and they had to suffer like their counterparts in Sector 22. "Our problems are identical to that of the Shastri Market shopkeepers," a Sector-19 trader said. "There has been a spurt in the number of illegal vendors in just two years, ever since the Vendors Act was regularised."
Sadar Bazaar market committee chairman Inderjeet Singh said: "The number of illegal vendors in the entire Sector 19 is now close to 500, of which 200 sit at the boundary alone. Many of them received protection under the Vendors Act and were registered under the same, but a lot of them still flout the rules and remain un-registered. The municipal corporation had promised to develop separate markets for them in Sectors 41 and 47 but nothing has become of that rehabilitation plan." A lot of shopkeepers have also accused the vendors of increasing pollution by spreading much around their stalls. "They sprawl their items in the open and leave garbage behind after their day is over," a traders said. The legal shopkeepers have made several complaints to the MC, but all in vain.

A large number of shopkeepers have also complained about faulty the wiring and how it has been left in that position for a long time. Market committee chairman Inderjeet Singh said: "We have faced so much trouble because of this issue. First, a set of lights in the parking lot and then the street lights and the LED bulbs stopped working. Darkness is spread everywhere in the evening. Even the night watchmen complain of being unable to do their job because of the dark. Due to a complete absence of light in certain portions of the market, anti-social elements like drug addicts, drug peddlers, and thieves might have a free run."
Many times, the watchmen have told the committee that they are uncomfortable while patrolling the area at night, since even all the lights from the shops are switched off at that hour. Inderjeet Singh said: "The MC says it doesn't have the equipment to detect the street light fault."
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