Corpn Council meet: Councillors want say in street vendors survey

CHENNAI: With the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) conducting a survey to identify street vendors across Chennai, councillors urged the civic body to include them as well in the exercise so that the survey will be conducted in an effective manner.

During the question hour of Chennai Corporation Council meet, Bharathi, councillor from Ward 152, explained that the exercise is being carried out without the knowledge of zonal chairmen and concerned councillors. As the officials are from other localities, they might not know about all the streets and bottlenecks. She also requested Mayor R Priya to consult zonal chairmen and councillors before distributing identity cards to such vendors.

Responding to this, Priya said that survey is being carried out by a private firm and licence surveyors will verify once the survey is completed. Moreover, identity cards will be given to street vendors through zonal chairmen.

K Dhanasekaran, standing committee chairman (Finance) pointed out that identity cards have already been issued to some vendors. "Identity cards given to vendors in busy roads should be cancelled," he urged.

While intervening, Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Chennai Corporation Commissioner, explained that there are around 30,000 street vendors in the city with identity cards. " But the actual number might be three times higher. Progress of the survey will be intimated to the councillors with stage-wise updates," he assured.

Nolambur Rajan, zonal chairman of Valasaravakkam zone opined that the civic body could have conducted a meeting with the councillors before starting the survey. "Before issuing identity cards, the Corporation should identify vending and non-vending zones," he said.

Vishu Mahajan, Deputy Commissioner (Revenue and Finance), said that the present exercise is only to identify the vendors. "Town vending committees (with zonal chairmen as members) will only decide on vending and non-vending zones. Despite having identity cards, vendors with vending certificates will be allowed to sell in a particular street, " he said.