Street vendors defy high court, capture markets

CHANDIGARH: Commuters get no relief from rampant encroachment upon public spaces in prominent commercial sectors such as 17, 19 and 22 even after the Punjab and Haryana high court has taken a serious note of it and asked the UT administration and police to evict all illegal vendors.
Last week, the high court observed that there was a clear nexus between police and the illegal street vendors.The court directed the UT administration and director general of police (DGP) to remove all the unauthorised businesses from footpaths and parking lots of the city. The high court took suo-motu notice of the chaos that was happening because of this encroachment.
The court also observed that footpaths were meant for walking and parking lots were meant for vehicles and not street vendors. The judges also expressed dissatisfaction over the UT's stated definition of street vending under the relevant Act. The asked the administration how footpaths and parking zones could qualify to be called streets. During a visit to Sector 17, 19, and 22 in the wake of this observation, a TOI team found no change in situation on the ground. Rather, inaction by the authorities concerned had emboldened the illegal street vendors and their number had multiplied to an intolerable limit.
Sector-22 resident welfare association president Rajender Mohan Kashyap said he was waiting for official action against illegal vendors after the high court directions but "it seems that the civic authorities are not in a mood to carry out the orders". He said: "Common man is the sufferer, as he is left with no option but to wait for the administration to clear the footpaths and parking lots. We do not find any change in the encroachment situation, which is killing the heritage sectors of the city."
Kashyap accused the enforcement wing of the Chandigarh municipal corporation of overlooking encroachment in the heritage area on the pretext of maintaining the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. Sector-19 active social welfare association president Rajiv Moudgil said: "One of my friends who had come from abroad to visit all three heritage sectors for shopping was disappointed to see the level of encroachment. He told me that this entire land grab was spoiling the city's impression among visitors. The estate office is finding hard to allot the government houses near the Sector-19 Sadar Bazar, one of the oldest markets of the city, since no one wants a house in an area rife with encroachment by vendors."
In one of the recent meetings of Foswac (Federation of Sector Welfare Associations of Chandigarh), association president Baljinder Singh Bittu said Chandigarh should be renamed from City Beautiful to 'Farighar' (house of street vendors), as neither the UT estate office nor the Chandigarh municipal corporation was bothered to take any action against encroachment.