SHILLONG: The number of hawkers on footpaths is on the rise and the problem is no more confined to Police Bazar and Motphran but has spread to other areas like Laitumkhrah.
The problem has been there for years but the Government is yet to find a solution to it.
Speaking on the matter on Thursday, Urban Affairs Minister R.V Lyngdoh said there was a constitutional tangle between the Meghalaya Street Vendors Act and the Central Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, which does not take into account local customs.
“The Central Act is a blanket Act and it will prevail since it is in the concurrent list,” he said but added that the Department has taken up the matter with the Law Department to address the legal tangle between the two Acts.
Lyngdoh, however, stressed on the important role that Dorbar Shnong can play to help the Government in identifying vendors in respective localities so that they can be shifted to designated locations.
The minister said though the hawkers are earning their livelihood, pedestrians too have the right on footpaths.
Earlier, the hawkers’ body in Shillong had moved the High Court of Meghalaya over frequent eviction drives conducted by the District Administration and the matter is sub-judice.
