Can accommodate only 700 street vendors, SMB tells court
SHILLONG: The street vendors and hawkers of Shillong have been protesting outside the office of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) for five days now highlighting their plight.
Speaking to reporters here on Monday, TUR member Angela Rangad expressed dismay over the apathy of the State government towards the current state of affairs. “It has been a very long dharna. The hawkers spent money to come here unlike in other places where people are ferried in buses and cars to attend a dharna.”
“We filed a writ petition last Friday to challenge the constitutional validity of the State Act (Meghalaya Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014),” she said on the last day of the peaceful demonstration.
Rangad said that the hawkers will meet again on December 23 during the visit of the general secretary of the National Federation of Hawkers, who is especially coming to Shillong to meet the hawkers after learning about their struggle.
Meanwhile, in a press communiqué, Rangad said the SMB has stated to the court that only 700 hawkers -one per family- can be accommodated in the city, which according to the agitators is against the law as the “holding capacity” has not been determined.
The vendors and hawkers staged a protest outside the SMB as a sign of their refusal to accept the forms issued by the Town Vending Committee, which they claim is illegal as it does not have any representatives from the hawkers.
The TUR and Meghalaya and Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers and Street Vendors Association have reiterated their demand for implementing the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.
When asked whether hawkers and vendors have added to the already congested narrow roads, L. Marbaniang, president of the hawkers’ body said, “There will be congestion. After we were evicted, some of the areas turned into parking spaces. If they need parking fee so badly, they could have taken the same from us.”
Urban Affairs Minister Ronnie Lyngdoh had stated that plans are afoot to rehabilitate the hawkers on the available vacant government land in the city.