SHILLONG: Despite several crackdowns, laws and government intervention, there is no end to the problem of hawking in Shillong in the absence of a proper designated place for the hawkers to earn a decent livelihood raising the question whether the state capital would eventually turn into a hawkers market in a few years from now.
Be it Police Bazar, GS Road, Motphran, Polo, Laitumkhrah, Iew Mawlong, Civil Hospital junction and even the Umiam Lake view point, the number of hawkers in the city and its outskirts is on the rise leading to more and more congestion while the government seems to have no solution.
The refrain among many is that while everyone has the right to earn a livelihood, people also have the right to walk freely on the footpaths. The situation is so alarming that the entire stretch of Police Bazar right from Khyndailad is now ruled by the hawkers and there is hardly any space for the pedestrians.
Similar is the situation in Motphran and GS road where hawkers are doing their business almost on the road by endangering their lives as well as that of others.
The situation is worse inside Iewduh, the biggest commercial market in Shillong where hawkers sit in the congested and narrow lanes of Bara Bazar leading to more congestion.
While the issue of hawking has been the talk of the town for ages, successive governments so far have failed to find a solution.
Earlier, the state government was contemplating to turn the oil depot of the Meghalaya Transport Corporation located in the Quinton Road as a vending zone, but the idea continues to hang fire.
