Street vendors stare at uncertainty as Chennai Corporation plans to earmark hawking zones

CHENNAI: To reach a solution to the city’s long-standing hawker encroachment issue, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is planning to develop a pilot model of allotted vending zones to street vendors by earmarking slots, providing basic amenities and issuing food safety licences to them.

The Town Vending Committee has approved four areas in the city. However, the street vendors’ association requested that the civic body permit them to sell on the footpaths in the existing vending areas and promised not to cause traffic congestion. To bring the plan on floors, the civic body conducted a survey through a consultant from June 2022 to March 2023, and 35,588 street vendors have been registered. GCC has also implemented the Street Vendors (Protection Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Central Act, 2014 and Tamil Nadu Street Vendors Schemes - Rules, 2015, to improve their livelihood and regulate street vending.

The committee was constituted under the chairmanship of the GCC commissioner with 14 members. It includes the city health officer, chief engineer (general), deputy commissioner of police (law and order) and deputy commissioner of police (traffic), six representatives among the registered street vendors elected through an election and four nominated members from representatives from traders association, an NGO/community-based organisation and resident welfare association.

“More than 35,000 street vendors have been registered, of which only 28,000 have licences from the local body. The numbers are not accurate because the survey was outsourced; there should be at least one lakh street vendors. The survey was mostly conducted during the daytime, and many vendors set up their shop only after 6 pm. Now, when the TVC finalises the vending zone areas, only the licensed vendors will be able to sell, and other street vendors’ businesses will be uncertain,” stated S Kannan, one of the street vendor representatives from the TVC. Earlier this year, the Chennai Corporation released a list of vending and non-vending zones to the committee and association members. Many areas, including Luz and George Town, were listed under the non-vending areas, prompting the street vendors to urge the authorities to revise the list and permit the existing areas for their business.

Many ward councillors and the general public have raised complaints as most shops have encroached on places near government hospitals and educational institutions. The growing population of mobile eateries on the footpath pushes pedestrians to walk on the road, increasing risks.

A street vendor near Chennai Central railway station, D Thirumoorthy, contends that officials claim the shops near hospitals and footpaths congest traffic; on the contrary, it is convenient for people to approach them when they set shops at such places.

He added that the corporation authorities, along with police, were evicting them from their place of business.

The hawkers have extended their request to the concerned department to consider retaining the existing market areas before finalising the area that will fall under vending zones. They also believe the civic body may reduce the space for their businesses, and the remaining vendors may be shifted to different commercial areas and residential spaces.

P Karunanidhi, general secretary of the Chennai Street Vendors Association, opined, “The new commissioner has demarcated the vending areas zone-wise by forming a sub-committee to discuss at various areas across the city. They have identified the areas to be allocated for the vendors. If the civic body wants to designate non-vending areas in the existing zones, citing traffic congestion, they should provide alternative space within a 1-km radius for the vendors.”

Zonal sub-committees have also been formed per the instructions of the GCC commissioner. The zonal officer chairs these sub-committees and consists of a zonal executive engineer, zonal health officer, senior revenue officer, a police officer (law and order), a police officer (traffic) and one Town Vending Committee member. “The Chennai Corporation authorities should ensure that the space, for the livelihood of vendors, is allotted without disturbing the existing vending areas and regulate the traffic in the locality,” added Karunanidhi.

The civic body conducted special camps in all 15 zones from August 19 to 25 to collect the details to be corrected in the street vendors’ identity cards. Plans to issue identity cards with information chips and QR codes for registered street vendors have been proposed.

So far, six committee meetings have been conducted. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) with Act, Scheme and Rules for identifying the vending zones and non-vending zones have been circulated to members and officials.

“During Town Vending Committee’s fifth meeting held on September 6 at least four vending zones were placed before the committee and approved. West Avenue Road (Tondiarpet zone), Pantheon Lane in Egmore (adjacent to Co-optex - Royapuram zone), Park Road (Ambattur zone) and Besant Nagar 2nd Avenue (Adyar zone) are approved to develop the vending zones as a pilot model by earmarking the slots, providing basic amenities like public convenience, drinking water, dustbins, street lights, erecting the boards specifying the vending zones, allotment of special carts to the street vendors,” said GCC commissioner J Kumaragurubaran.

“We will give training and food safety licences to the street vendors. During the last TVC meeting, instructions were given to the 15 zonal sub-committee that one vending zone and one non-vending zone to be placed before the next Town Vending Committee,” added the commissioner.