SHILLONG, April 14: Meghalaya’s street vendors and hawkers’ body on Thursday called on Chief Secretary Rebecca Suchiang to deliberate over the modalities of implementing the central law on hawking and street vending in the state, which has continued to persist as a burning issue for the stakeholders.
This development comes in the wake of the recent stand taken by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs on the implementation of Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.
The Committee found that the provisions of Meghalaya’s state law on hawking was repugnant to the Central Act and recommended that the Meghalaya government should notify the rules for the legislation at the earliest.
The Meghalaya and Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers and Street Vendors Association recalled that since 2016, it had petitioned the state government to implement the central act on hawking and street vending but several Urban Affairs ministers and Chief Secretaries unfortunately chose to remain indifferent to the ‘legally-sound’ demands of the association.
Speaking to reporters, the Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR) member, Angela Rangad, said, “The association feels a sense of victory that their long struggle to ensure rule of law has been recognised”.
“It is sad that the Government of Meghalaya has once again been caught on the legal back foot by the Union government. This situation could have been avoided if the bureaucracy and the political class had listened to the local voices,” she said.
While demanding the implementation of the central act, the association has once again submitted the details pertaining to draft rules and schemes under the central act as well as detailed plans for a survey, calculation of the holding capacity and lawful identification of vending zones to the chief secretary.
“We hope that there won’t be any further delay in implementation of the central law on street hawking and vending,” she added.